Bruce Stanton at the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

This is the 10^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Indian Affairs and Northern Development. This morning, we have on the agenda Bill C-5, an Act to amend the Indian Oil and Gas Act.

This morning we welcome our witnesses for consideration of Bill C-5, amendments to the Indian Oil and Gas Act.

We'll start with Chief Bruce Labelle from the Chiniki First Nation. Second will be Chief Clifford Poucette from the Wesley First Nation. Then we'll hear from Chief David Bearspaw from the Bearspaw First Nation.

Chiefs, we welcome you to our committee this morning. We're delighted that you could take the time to join us here on relatively short notice.

We normally provide 10 minutes for each presentation. With your agreement, and seeing that we only have one hour, I suggest you keep your opening remarks to about seven minutes each so we'll be through them in about 20 minutes. Then we will go to questions from members.

We'll start with Chief Labelle for seven minutes.