Welcome to meeting number 119 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, June 5, 2024, the committee is resuming consideration of Bill C-61, an act respecting water, source water, drinking water, waste water and related infrastructure on First Nation lands.
We recognize that we are having this meeting today on ancestral and unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. That's very relevant today, because we are very fortunate to have some excellent witnesses to provide testimony for this work.
I want to welcome our witnesses to our panel. From the Anishinabek Nation, we have Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige; from the Chiefs of Ontario, we have Grand Chief Abram Benedict and Irving Leblanc; from the Cowessess First Nation, we have Chief Erica Beaudin.
From the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, we have Deputy Grand Chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum; Michael McKay, director of housing and infrastructure; Jamie Saunders, infrastructure adviser; and Maheegan Armstrong, legal counsel.
To start, we will have a round of introductions of five minutes for each of the four organizations here, starting with Linda Debassige.
I'll hand the floor over to you, for five minutes