Thanks, Madam Chair.
Most of you, but not all of you, were in the room when I asked the previous federal officials a question specific to the first nations issue. Some of you have bigger populations than others. Western Canada certainly has a huge on-reserve aboriginal population.
It's been very clearly stated that the feds can't overrule or step into provincial jurisdiction when it comes to child care regulations, so on and so forth, but there is a bit of a gap here when it comes to on reserve because there is a federal responsibility there. The bill right now is silent. There's talk of an amendment. The Indian Act right now very clearly allows bands to pass bylaws on controlling weeds, but they can't do anything on child welfare and so on and so forth.
The question for me, and I'm getting asked this by the aboriginal community and first nations on-reserve communities in particular, is where do they fit in? What would your thoughts be with respect to this bill and that particular issue? How would we fund, how would we move forward together on trying to create child care spaces and early learning opportunities on reserve, within your existing frameworks?