We have quorum, so I call this meeting to order.
I'll start with the land acknowledgement. We have quite a few land acknowledgements as we go around the room, but in my case I am on the territory, the traditional lands, of the Anishinabe, Haudenosaunee and Chonnonton first nations.
The committee is continuing its study of support for indigenous communities through the second wave of COVID-19.
I have a couple of notes. First of all, I've had some real technical problems. I'm working off my Surface in my office because I just couldn't get anything to work on the PC. It was a bit cumbersome getting things started and material printed off, and I apologize for that.
Once again, today's meeting is taking place by video conference. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. During the meeting the webcast will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee.
You'll hear a lot about our interpretation. We need to facilitate the work of the interpreters. One issue is the sound. If you have a headset microphone with earplugs, make sure you're speaking close to the microphone that's located on those. These headset mikes should be working fine.
The other thing you need to know about interpretation is that at the bottom centre of your screen is a globe that says, “Interpretation”. You should move your cursor to the language you wish to hear or speak in. In my case, I will put English. That will facilitate the translation.
I'm going to first of all invite our guests to speak, with a reminder that each of the witnesses has been prepared to make their opening statement of up to six minutes. I'd like to welcome the first round of witnesses.
We have by video conference from Montreal, Éric Cardinal as an individual. From the First Peoples Wellness Circle, we have Dr. Brenda Restoule, chief executive officer, appearing from Nipissing First Nation in Ontario. From the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, we have Carol Hopkins, who is the executive director. She's with us by video conference from Bothwell, Ontario.
We'll begin our six-minute round of presentations.
Mr. Cardinal, please go ahead for six minutes.