Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I really had hoped we wouldn't descend into this kind of partisanship. I realize that I was the one who mentioned it this morning. It's because I'm quite defensive of making sure that this bill is passed in a timely fashion, which we also heard from many partners who said to pass the bill without delay. Those are also voices that I'm going to represent here at this committee.
I'll also use whatever tone I feel is appropriate in this place. I'm being as respectful as I can, but again, I'm going to be firm with what I'm arguing here.
I can see there's goodwill and then it crosses over again into delay. Yes, first nations communities have had to wait for far too long. This bill is not about changing those boil water advisories. We've been doing that work. We're at 97%, currently.
Mr. Zimmer, you'd know that if you actually asked any of our indigenous witnesses questions during the committee testimony on this very important bill.
Now I would like to pivot back to our officials.
I wonder if you can further explain how this legal precedent around “consult and co-operate” has been enshrined in our legal framework here in Canada and how that could help us guide this discussion back to where it needs to be.