Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses.
Before I get into my line of questions, I want to put forward a notice of motion pursuant to our standing order. As people may be aware, there have been huge and significant wildfires in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan that have had very significant effects on indigenous communities, whether those of the Ashcroft Indian Band, who lost half their homes, or communities in Manitoba from which, in the dead of night, people were moved to an evacuation centre for many weeks.
I don't want to take up a lot of committee time with this, but I think it might be important to have a meeting or two that looked at this particular issue. I'll just read out the notice of motion. I know we'll have time, but I wanted to get it on the record, because I think it is a very urgent and emergent situation concerning which we should make sure things are running smoothly.
The motion is:
That pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee immediately undertake a study on the long term impacts of this summer's wildfires on First Nations communities; that this study be comprised of no less than two meetings; and that witnesses include, but are not limited to, the Minister of Indigenous services and the Chair of the Ad Hoc Cabinet Committee on Federal Recovery Efforts for 2017 Wildfires; and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
Because it was such an emergency—it impacted so many communities, and even with such things as hunting there are issues—I hope that when we get to discuss this motion people will have had time to reflect on it and we can deal with it.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for indulging me on this.
Turning now to the witnesses, first of all thank you. We have talked about this particular study for a long time. I think we've bitten off a very large topic. Unfortunately, our colleague Mr. McLeod isn't with us. I know he was particularly interested in ensuring that it was a very comprehensive....
I'm going to come at it from a bit of a self-interest perspective, because I'm from British Columbia. Would it be accurate to say that out of all of the provinces and territories, the outstanding issues are perhaps largest in British Columbia? Would that be accurate, in terms of not having anything in place?
Could you speak to that for me?