Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming, Minister. I think this is an important day for celebration because the Tsawwassen people have been waiting for a long time for this day. I applaud the government for moving on this initiative.
I have, of course, a couple of questions. I was actually pleased to hear you say that this agreement is not intended to be a template or a cookie cutter, and I know that Chief Baird herself has said that this is an agreement for the Tsawwassen people and is not intended to fetter any other people.
Back in January we had some discussions around funding that would look at the transition-to-treaty work plan and timelines. I understand that there were some challenges in that the band found itself in a financial limbo; it was no longer in the treaty process but didn't have additional funds to look at the transition-to-treaty work and the timelines.
I wonder if you could update the committee on whether additional funds were provided to do that transition-to-treaty work plan and timelines.
The second question I have is also, of course, around money. I know that many of the neighbouring nations have had a good working relationship with the Tsawwassen, but the Penelakut people who live on Kuper Island, in my riding of Nanaimo—Cowichan, seem to understand that they had been promised $15,000 to continue to do a consultation process with the Tsawwassen. Then they received a notification from INAC that they were only going to get $10,000. Of course they have already committed $15,000.
I wonder if you could talk about whether there was funding available for other nations--in terms of the consultation process with the Tsawwassen--around some overlapping jurisdictions.