—and win federal contracts should not be impeded by the government's lack of proper first nations citizenship programs or anti-imposter protections.
The process for recognizing first nations identity, whether of individuals, businesses, or organizations claiming or seeking to assert first nations identity, must be led by first nations to ensure legitimacy.
I want to thank everybody for giving me this time. This is not the first time. I've been working on this since, I think, 1999, when the first procurement came out. We've had issues, according to the standing committee, going back to 2006, when my brother John Bernard, from Donna Cona, spoke on this. I'm not sure if everybody at the table has this information from that standing committee, which would help the committee move forward and make the best decision possible.
I have another thing before I finish. I do want to insist, again, that you stop going behind closed doors, preparing documents and policy, throwing it at us and telling us that's the way it should be. You're wasting our time, your time, and money.
It's important that we start this first nations procurement opportunity for our people to be able to work together with you so that we can save time and money and get this going. It's been ongoing for way too long.
Thank you. Woliwon..