Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I welcome our witnesses today.
Thank you for the report. I also want to acknowledge that obviously there's a long way to go in continuing this process, but at the same time, there have been significant improvements. I noted in your conclusion, especially in paragraph 4.59, that overall Indian and Northern Affairs Canada has made satisfactory progress, with a 42% increase in three years. In addition, the next paragraph talks about the improvement in the relationship with first nations on plans to convert their outstanding selections enabling better coordination of its environmental assessments, etc.
Flipping back to page 10 of your report, paragraph 4.32 talks about the 42% increase and then paragraph 4.33 talks about the difference, with 159,000 acres converted between 1997 and 2005. Certainly 159,000 in one year compared to that number in eight years seems to be significant progress. I think we need to keep in mind that we can celebrate those successes.
Your report points out involving several partners in the process. I would like to follow up on paragraph 4.8, where you talk about treaty land entitlement agreements setting out the necessary responsibilities for INAC, the provinces, and the first nations. The first nations are responsible for land selection and third party interests. I'm wondering if there's any advice you could give us or that we as a committee could encourage first nations groups to take in helping themselves in expediting the TLE process.
It takes three partners. I recognize that, and I want to come back to the provinces in a bit. We've already said what INAC can do to improve, but could you help me understand what some of the other pieces are that we could address in terms of expediting the TLE process?