Thank you.
Welcome. It's an honour to have you here, and we appreciate your time.
Of course, I have a thousand questions for you, and I hope this isn't the only time we'll have you here. You've given us a lot of food for thought.
National Chief, we've heard from the land group that is dealing with the land code and so forth. We've heard from the government on land claims. I'm hoping we will also hear from the coalition on land claims. I think it will also offer a good third perspective.
You talked very strongly about the need to move toward self-financing and pursue economic development. But then you also very eloquently presented--you brushed over it--very clearly the other side of it, the struggle of some first nations. I wonder if you could share with us, at least initially, what you would see, because in my mind, I'm seeing two different challenges.
Obviously, some first nations are poised to do very well and are already. They are innovating and are pursuing economic development. Then there's a huge number of first nations, especially isolated communities, that are struggling simply to provide safe drinking water and adequate housing for their peoples.
Can you talk a bit about what you see as the key measures needed for both of those categories? Do you see them as exactly the same, as one size fits all, or do you see that we need to be pursuing different initiatives at the federal level for those two categories of nations?