All right, but that's exactly what he did. In the midst of that, I was the chief who stood up in the assembly and told Mr. Clarke, “You're not prepared to answer any question in regard to the private member's bill. Why should we answer any questions you bring forward?”
I believe there has to be meaningful dialogue—I agree—before there are any changes to the act.
There was also the January 11 meeting with the Prime Minister. I was one of the chiefs who was present at that meeting, and we agreed there has to be meaningful dialogue. At that time when we sat with the Prime Minister we were talking about the omnibus bill that affected the ability...and it has something to do with the Indian Act, too. We were trying to get a dialogue and a strategy session with the government of the day. The consensus was that the Prime Minister had agreed to have meaningful dialogue with the first nations leaders across Canada.
Right now we're just waiting. It's a waiting game. I'm prepared. I have presented a document to this standing committee as to what needs to happen before any changes to the act should happen.
In the midst of that, with the leaders and the commitment to an immediate high-level working process with treaty nation leaders, there has to be some meaningful dialogue, as I mentioned.
I was just talking to my policy analyst. I believe the first meeting should be kind of an introduction. When we're talking about treaty implementation, in the midst of that we don't want to rush through a change to this piece of legislation unless there is something at the end that will be beneficial for our community.
Right now we believe we have to have that dialogue with the government. As you know, I'm prepared to sit down with the Prime Minister and his high-level cabinet ministers to have a meaningful dialogue with them and present our position.
The document you have in front of you is a document we have presented to the Prime Minister and there hasn't been a response to that document. That highlights the process of what we think meaningful dialogue should be on treaty implementation.
Thank you.