Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to both of our witnesses. I'm glad you took the time to introduce yourselves individually to each of us.
Mr. Fauteux, it's nice to have you here with us.
I have a couple of questions.
When the Auditor General was in talking about this specific issue--and they've done a comparison between the progress that was made in Saskatchewan versus the progress that was made in Manitoba--there seemed to be a sense that it was a relationship issue between the regional offices and the first nations. There seemed to be more openness and a more cooperative relationship in Saskatchewan. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but that is the sense that I was getting from the conversation around questions relating to this issue. That same relationship didn't exist in Manitoba, and that was one of the reasons we didn't see the same type of positive results in Manitoba.
Do you think that is the case, and what can that be attributed to?
My second question is regarding your presentation. It says some of the challenge may lie in the first phase, and that is to deal with the first nations' selecting of provincial crown land or acquiring fee simple land that they would like added to their reserve. Listening to the Auditor General, it was my understanding that more than enough land had been selected by first nations, that the delay wasn't on that end at all, but it was on the conversion end that we could see the delay.
Is there still a seven-year timeframe? This is a supplementary to that second question. Is it still on average seven years from the time the process starts to the time we have the conversion and the addition?