Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think this is a fascinating panel. I've been sitting in on these meetings. We really have gone to the heart of the issue, which is a technological issue, a management issue and a financing issue, and I see everyone on the panel here really having the answers.
I mean, Mr. Hotchkies and Mr. Mitchell, you understand the operations of waste-water systems probably better than anyone else, and it seems that we have all the solutions. The question is, how do we build that capacity? How do we improve the management of waste water, including from the point of view of designing systems and so on? What's it going to take to move forward? Do we need some kind of catalyst?
Obviously, Public Works, in working with Indigenous and Northern Affairs, working with Environment Canada and working with outside engineers, hasn't solved the problem. We have had the best talent working on this issue for years and years, but somehow, through lack of coordination or because of people working in silos, we haven't been able to.... We've been installing plants that never became operational, I hear, but that were extremely expensive and top of the line.
What's the catalyst? Is the catalyst the first nations water commission that this bill will create? In your opinion, is that going to solve the problem?
We'll have Mr. Mitchell first, and then Mr. Hotchkies.