Thank you very much.
Yes, it's very important. It's been an issue from the very beginning in regard to this strategy of using token Indians. I'm sorry to say that you could pick up somebody on the side of the street, and if they're indigenous, they become that token Indian and there are no qualifications needed for that indigenous person, so there's some work to be done in that aspect of ensuring that the aboriginal is capable of having the ownership of this so-called business, if it is a shell company, and to make sure that they're there working day to day and not just being given a couple of dollars on the side just for their name. This is huge.
In reference to our status, we have a status card. I think every first nation person does have a status card. When it comes to the Métis, I'm not sure if there are regulations put in place, as is done in the first nations, so that our status is recognized in Canada. I want to ensure that for all the memberships of all the organizations, there is something in place to ensure verification that they are either Métis or Inuit or first nations and that someone is not just walking in a door and saying, “I'm Métis because my great-grandfather was, and he has a descendant.”
This is important to us, especially when we're looking at 5% in procurement and we want to ensure that the first nation organization has an adequate percentage of that 5% and ensure that we're not just giving 5% to a person in another organization whose membership has not been verified by INAC or who doesn't fall within the terms of that membership. That's very important, and it's been an issue from the very beginning.
I'll give you a perfect example. I owned The Brick furniture store back at the time when Bernard Valcourt was the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. I told him that I wanted to sell my mattresses to the shipbuilding down here in Halifax. I asked him about that because at that time, it was 10% procurement. He said yes and he said it was the law, but there was nobody pushing it, so that's been a problem from the very beginning. This was in place, but there was nobody governing it or managing it to ensure that we did receive our 10%.