Thank you very much.
Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting us to appear today.
APTN News brings indigenous perspectives to Canada's national conversation. We do it to the highest professional journalistic standards. From day one, we have ensured journalistic independence and editorial integrity. Those uncompromising principles were established by the late and renowned news director Dan David when APTN News was first built. They continue to guide how we operate today. Our journalists follow the same rigorous standards you would expect from any major news organization in Canada.
What makes APTN different is the indigenous perspective. We cover stories that you won't see anywhere else, which make up much of our reporting, and we also cover the national and global stories that every network is covering. APTN invests heavily in journalism. We operate bureaus across the country and send reporters wherever the story requires, even when that travel is difficult and expensive. Recently, our journalists travelled to Greenland to report on the Inuit perspective regarding threats of a U.S. takeover. We also travel throughout Canada and to many remote communities. We recently travelled to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord to report on the changing way of life due to melting sea ice.
This kind of reporting takes time and resources. While many television news reports today run under 90 seconds, APTN stories often run three or four minutes, and sometimes longer. That time matters. It allows our journalists to explain the story, include community voices and report the full story, because first nation, Inuit and Métis communities are complex.
APTN produces one of the few remaining stand-alone investigative news programs in Canada. Our journalism has received national recognition, including Canada's most prestigious journalism honour, the Michener Award. But the most important measure is the trust we work for with our communities. No other media outlet in Canada can match the volume and breadth of indigenous news coverage that APTN accomplishes. As indigenous peoples, we are the ones who need to be telling our own stories.
I'll now turn things over to my colleague Mike Omelus.