Thank you, Madam Chair.
First, I would like to welcome our guests and tell them that their testimony is critical for our study on poverty. Likewise, when we conducted our study on employability, we had the occasion to hear presentations on conditions of access and job retention and to discover to what extent Aboriginal and Metis communities were sometimes prejudiced compared to non-Aboriginal people.
This day is all the more important because I should wish you a happy anniversary. In fact, this is the 50th anniversary of voting rights for First Nations. In a democratic society, I believe that this is very significant.
To get straight to the heart of what I want to say, in the beginning of 2009, in the context of the Economic Action Plan, you submitted to the Canadian government your own stimulus plan for the Metis nation. From what I can see in this project, and primarily from what you said earlier—if there are noteworthy distinctions to be made, I would like to be made aware of them—, it is important for us to know how your project was received by the Canadian government.