Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, everyone, for coming today, especially my fellow Manitobans. Of course, I have nothing against those from Nova Scotia.
I'll start with some of the reasoning our minister and our government have employed for this repeal of section 67. That is that it is to resolve issues that we see brought before government on many occasions, especially in relation to matrimonial real property in particular situations where the marriage compact is broken, for whatever reason, and families have to vacate the home, not based on any direct division of marital assets, but rather through the current model employed throughout most of our first nations communities, which is the allocation of assets through the direction of band councils.
The issue that I face and our government faces as legislators is that we have what we see as a problem typically, in some situations, for mothers and children, who aren't necessarily guaranteed housing upon a marital breakup.
As part of our plans to remedy this situation, which we feel we must do, repeal of section 67 was asked for, to be undertaken as part of the process, as it is seen as necessary to provide matrimonial real property. That is one element of some of the reasoning.
I would ask the question, would you not agree that matrimonial real property is an essential part of families' lives on reserve, and do you not agree that a remedy is important?
Maybe I'll put that question to Ms. Eastman first.