Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being with us today.
Right off the top, Chief Mykat, I absolutely believe in the inherent right to clean drinking water. That's one of the reasons I ran to be involved in politics. It was 2019 when I first got here. Sadly, it's taken this long to get to this point, but I am so excited as well to get to the amendment process, because we have heard incredible testimony from incredible leaders like yourself. Your voices will be heard and will be represented in this bill because it's about you and your people.
Also, I just want to thank our witness as well who's online. The pictures of the children behind you really remind us what this is about. We can't necessarily go back in time for those who have been dealing with this for far too long, but we're going to fix this for the children, moving ahead.
I wanted to ask this, through your counsel today. In a letter sent to our committee, the Alberta environment minister, Rebecca Schulz, encouraged us as a committee “to consider the roles provinces and territories have as leaders, collaborators, and stewards of water that they own and regulate, as it works through its mandate.” The letter goes on to say, “The federal government's role should complement—not conflict with—provincial responsibilities. Bill C-61's provisions on source water generally and source water protection zones must be carefully considered to avoid exceeding the federal power to legislate as well as jurisdictional conflicts.”
Would you say that Alberta's government's actions to protect source water are those of “leaders, collaborators, and stewards”?