Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. This is no longer my permanent assignment, but I spent more than two years as the parliamentary secretary on this committee. I know the good work and the general collegiality that existed then and that I've heard exists here now.
I too, like Charlie, remember the Liberal Party of Canada quite quickly—before the full report was even released—saying that they accepted all of the recommendations without fail, every single one of them, and that they would implement them. That was part of their solemn promise to indigenous Canadians and to all Canadians.
I think quite frankly that having Mr. Yurdiga bring this forward is a step forward. You're talking today about suicide among indigenous peoples and communities. We can trace much of the current state of affairs, particularly on reserve, back to the dark chapter of Canadian history that involves the residential schools. This is a multi-generational issue that continues to manifest itself today.
I would say that, rather than this being an insult to the professor, this is actually extremely important and extremely germane to the study we are embarking on today, because this is a promise that was made.
It has been now nearly two years. We need to have a progress update. We need to have measurables. We need to move past words to action. All of the good words, and they are good words, about making things better for indigenous communities are only that, if they're not followed up on with significant action.
That's where we want to focus as Conservative members on this committee. As members of the official opposition, we want a report. It's just to get that update.
Concerning the fact that there's committee business, what the public or the witness might not know is that it occurs in an in camera discussion; it's not in public. If this motion is moved in private and it doesn't come out the other end, well, Canadians will know what happened to this motion, I think, seeing the unanimous support for the motion on this side of the table.
We want this to be debated in public. We want it to be debated, because we think it's the right thing to do, to get that progress update and see it done in a respectful way. There's no torqued-up language in this; no one's looking to embarrass anyone. We just want to get tangible, meaningful discussions to take place, we want to have those discussions in public, and we want this vote to take place in public, which is why Mr. Yurdiga moved it now. I salute him for it and I'll be supporting it.