Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for joining us here today. We've received a lot of great testimony over the last few weeks on our study of Bill C-15.
First, Mr. Schmidt or Ms. Joseph—I'll let you both have the opportunity to respond, if you want—I read a brief that you submitted a while back in which you referred to many of the same concepts as in your testimony today. It was about the great work that people in your organization have done with regard to their work with indigenous people and first nations and the relationships and whatnot that your industry has in those communities. You talked about investment. You talked about the contributions that are made.
Last week I made a statement to one of our witnesses that those who champion poverty reduction through economic development often get labelled as lacking compassion. I would see that as the exact opposite. You might want to speak to that in the context of the work your member organizations do in these communities.
Mr. Schmidt, you talked about your own relationship specifically with your company. I'd like you to expand on that a little bit and talk about how the work your organizations do, the relationships you have and the incredible amount of procurement and job creation you initiate in these communities has...on the opportunity to end poverty, create success for many first nations and grant them the opportunity to be successful in the future, investing in things like housing and recreation and the social issues they have. In my community, in my riding, we deal with a lot of suicide crisis kinds of things. The investments made by industry are huge in those kinds of issues in the first nations communities.
I'd like you to speak to that. I would also like you to speak to how the potential uncertainty of Bill C-15 might either contribute to or hinder that in the context of the great work that you've already done.