Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to start off by asking Mr. Paul a question.
First of all, I want to send my condolences to your community of Tobique. I know that you guys had some tragic losses this week, and I want to start out by sending those condolences and saying mesge'g for what has happened, which is Mi'kmaq for “I'm sorry”.
I've heard talk here about dependence, and we saw how that could be a problem when Premier Higgs cancelled the taxation agreements with the New Brunswick chiefs, which cost them $60 million to $70 million a year. In my conversations with the New Brunswick chiefs afterwards, they did mention that, if they had the ability to create their own taxation for fuel, for alcohol, for cannabis and for tobacco, that could offset some of those losses.
Mr. Paul, as someone from New Brunswick, can you talk to us a little bit about what the opportunities are under this and whether you think this could potentially be an option for a way forward that we should be exploring?