Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, committee members and guests, for the opportunity to be here for a short time.
As noted, I'm not a regular member of this committee, but this is a topic of some importance to me as a member of Parliament for the Yukon Territory.
I want to follow up on my colleague, Mr. Oliphant, in searching for some clarity on sovereignty. I must say that I'm a little uneasy with the comment that we need to put that aside or that there is no sovereignty issue.
When I think of the history of colonialism and displacement in Canada, but particularly in the three northern territories, I think we really need to continue to look to the expertise on the ground for the definition of sovereignty. To me and to many in the north, that relates to governance and ownership. Who's governing? What are the threats? Who needs to know? How are threats communicated and what are the lines of communication? We have had some issues where, for instance, self-governing first nations chiefs do not have information on what is actually a potential threat on the territories.
Dr. Perry, I know that you have extensive expertise in the area of diplomacy, security and global governance. I wonder if you could start, maybe briefly, by describing how, from a federal point of view, we can best interact and collaborate, even when we're talking about procurement and bolstering infrastructure—defence, security, defence infrastructure—with self-governing modern treaty nations, but also, of course, with territorial and provincial governments.