Thank you for your question. Let me try to respond.
There are a number of things that have occurred since this unfortunate incident, I would say, starting with better communication. I'm not going to defend the situation as being optimal. I think everyone recognizes that we have work to do. That's been the case for a long time, and we are doing it.
A number of things have happened since then. The minister was in Manitoba on a couple of occasions. She did meet with Grand Chief Evans and Grand Chief Harper. As I mentioned, I was in Manitoba last Friday for the express purpose of talking to them about the report and asking them whether they thought the report was a fair summary. I don't pretend that the report is a comprehensive treatise on all of the underlying social conditions in first nations, nor do I deny that those are things that governments in Canada need to work on, and we are working on them. In my discussion with the two grand chiefs—and we agreed, we did talk about these issues—we did talk about the desirability and the need for better communication and consultation. We did talk about needing to develop a process that will deal with some of these broader questions, but we also acknowledged that over the course of the immediate future, in terms of the hierarchy of needs, the priority was to focus on preparation for the fall and the possibility of a second wave in northern Manitoba. Those are some of the things we've done.
The other thing we've done, and quite importantly.... The gentleman sitting next to me, Paul Gully, who you know, has been here a number of times since he's been back from Geneva. He is a very well-known and credible Canadian public health official who has spent a number of years at the World Health Organization working on pandemic preparedness. We brought him back to quarterback our efforts with respect to first nations across the country, and I would say that probably he has spent a significant amount of his time in Manitoba and dealing with preparedness in Manitoba.
I'd also say that the minister has reached out—and I give credit to the minister and to the new national chief, Shawn Atleo, who had a number of discussions on the day this broke and subsequently. That led to the signing of the communications protocol. I think that protocol, which is really a little over two weeks old, is something we intend to put into effect. One of the issues—I think Dr. Gully mentioned this last week—was the idea of a virtual summit, an Internet-based summit that would enable preoccupations of first nations broadly around pandemics to be addressed, so that there would be opportunities jointly between ourselves and first nations leadership to answer questions.
So I would say there have been a number of significant steps taken. Is that all? No. Could we do better? Yes, we can always do better. Do we learn from some of our mistakes? Absolutely. It's with that spirit that I try to do my work and that we're going to move on in the future.