Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to start by going back to what you said at the beginning, which was that the minister will not be appearing before committee this week and that we can expect him for next week.
I would like to remind the chair that we anticipate his testimony and we look forward to it. I do hope he will show up next week. I am concerned other things will happen that will take away from his busy schedule.
I will just leave this for the committee to remember. On this side we have Conservative members and we have NDP members, and together we represent 9.1 million Canadians. That is an important number to remember, because it's in this committee and this House of Commons that the minister has accountability to those 9.1 million Canadians. I take it very seriously, and I expect him to be here.
Mr. Chair, you were a minister. I was a minister for seven years as well. You always take the invitation of the committee. I understand that there are scheduling issues, but this is a serious matter, and I will take great offence if he does not come here next Tuesday and speak to us.
With that, I will turn my nicer face to the witnesses, and thank them for their testimony so far. You're not going to get cranky, Lisa.
I have three separate sets of questions, if you will indulge me.
First of all, to the Assembly of First Nations, I'm sorry that we don't have your full report yet. It's coming from translation. In the meantime, can you give me an idea of what the total bucket or the total ask is? I just want to get a sense from you. I ask that question because I know the minister has already promised many billions.