Mr. Chair, I thank the witnesses for coming today. I extend a special greeting to the national chief, a fellow Manitoban. It's good to see you again.
I would like to start by pointing out to the national chief, on his point about how it is with this most recent government that our human rights are being denied in terms of access to water, that when we came to office, we inherited 193 communities that were at high risk, and the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development just last week reported that we've reduced that number to 97.
I believe this is some progress. Clearly there are still a lot of issues in place on first nations reserves throughout Canada, but when you set a priority to clean up water, you have to make efforts and make things happen, and I believe that cutting that number in half was a good start.
I would like to move on. I see that you've brought forward some recommendations. I'm definitely appreciative of receiving them, because it's only through collaboration with the Assembly of First Nations and other first nations leaders throughout Canada that we're going to be able to come up with the right solution to repealing section 67, which I think everyone agrees is essential.
Perhaps I could talk a bit about the interpretive provision that you've included on schedule B. In point “a” of that, on page 14, you talk about “the entitlement of a First Nation government to provide programs and services whether exclusively or on a preferential basis to its members”. What specifically do you mean by “preferential basis”?