From our perspective, the commissioner has to be indigenous, or has to be first nation. I'm speaking from a first nations perspective. It should be our people who appoint the commissioner—not the minister or the government, but our people—and that individual has to meet criteria. For example, that individual should be a language speaker and should be community-raised, having that strong knowledge of tradition and of the protocols. The commissioner should have strong public relations skills and the ability to build partnerships among first nations, government and society. We need to have some very critical, strong, cultural language criteria.
It needs to be our people. After all, this commissioner is going to be the one overseeing any funding or whatever that is born out of the legislation. Our people understand. Our people understand the community, the languages, the needs and how to work with systems.