Now that we have that straight, Mr. Chair, I want to thank Mr. Paul very much for coming today. The weather is much noted in your arrival here today.
I do want to ask you a couple of questions on the process. You stated that you're emphatically behind this legislation, as you see it as a step forward from the status quo of the past.
I should say, Mr. Chair, that any time I have left over I'll be splitting with my colleague from Peace River.
We had Chief Lawrence Joseph here from the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, representing 75 first nations and approximately 122,000 first nations status people. He has also been on this file for about 30 years, as you have. He had some very interesting things to say. I will paraphrase his statement that he had personally served in government for 30 years, and also as chief for 10 years, and had never seen this type of high-level commitment from the government to actually do something jointly with first nations in a strategic and structured way. And his vice-chief, Glen Pratt, said, “Personally, I think it's a real stepping stone forward in terms of having first nations at the table jointly recommending legislation. I think that in itself allows us to have greater input into the bill itself, rather than always reacting to the bills.”
Do you agree with these statements, Mr. Paul?