Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Minister, it's a pleasure to have you here. It's a pleasure to have you in front of the committee and to listen to your vision for this department, our first nations communities, and all our aboriginal communities.
I do have to state one thing, though. Listening to my honourable colleagues opposite continually bring up the Kelowna press release has been somewhat disturbing. This is about supplementary estimates. I don't ever recall seeing the Kelowna Accord or the Kelowna press release in the supplementary estimates. The other thing it never addressed was systemic change to the system, which is what our first nations leaders have said they need.
Anyway, Mr. Minister, that is my little rant.
I'd like to talk about something you brought up on education. It has been the silver bullet to get people out of poverty to the next level in society. I believe that if we don't have agreements with the provincial governments, as they are the experts in administering education in our constitutional system, and they are not involved.... We have seen the failures of that system in the past.
I'd like you to talk a bit more about your vision for our education system, the tripartite agreements, and also how you see that fanning out across the country.