There are a couple of things. First, I'm not familiar with the study you quote from, but it certainly sounds reasonable. You can slice aboriginal participation many different ways—on and off-reserve, for first nations people. Of course, Métis and Inuit will have their own unique challenges.
We've read other research, of course, saying that the reason first nations people don't vote is complicated. There is a sense of nationalism, sometimes—it's not our election, it's your election—that kind of sense of separation. We think there is a kind of concern about dealing with the federal state because of collective trauma, such things as the residential schools and previous history that we talked about. There hasn't been a tradition in our communities of voting in federal elections, and there is a kind of poverty notion, which you may be referring to, in some respects as well. These are obviously important issues.
I was the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres when that collaboration took place. It was very helpful. It was about telling people how to vote, what is required, getting their voter IDs in place prior to the election. It's very similar to what the Assembly of First Nations has done.
If you're telling me that this is in the current provisions, that hasn't been our reading of them. If it's the case, anything to strengthen and clarify that fact would be important. If that's the intention, it's certainly progress.