Colleagues, I'm going to call this meeting to order.
Good morning. Welcome to meeting number 132 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
As always, I want to start by acknowledging that we are gathered on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people and by expressing gratitude that we're able to do the important work of this committee on lands they've stewarded since time immemorial.
Colleagues, we have a lot of work to do, given the House order that was passed on Tuesday. The second report of our committee was recommitted to our committee with a view to studying the economic and antireconciliatory barriers posed by fraudulent bids and applications for procurement opportunities set aside for indigenous businesses, including those from non-indigenous-owned companies.
We are ordered to order certain ministers, officials and private citizens to appear, while we will also have at least four meetings to invite witnesses to provide testimony to this committee for that purpose. This is all before we break for holidays on December 17, which is less than a month away.
Accordingly, I want all parties to submit their witness lists to the clerk by noon on Friday, November 29, for at least the four meetings we will be having on this topic.
However, as this order appropriately confirms, the first priority of this committee is going to be passing Bill C-61.
You may ask how we are going to do all of this in less than a month. The order has given our committee, and me as chair, additional access to House resources to hold meetings, so there will be additional meetings and they will be longer. I'm currently seeking to secure those resources.
This is going to be an effort, and it's going to take some sacrifice from all of us to get this done. I've tried to accommodate all members of this committee, but going forward, I just want to mention that it is going to take some sacrifice to get this done, because we've had around eight hours of clause-by-clause consideration of this bill so far, and we're less than 30% done.
We've done our due diligence, and I don't want to rush you, but I ask that you try to limit unnecessary interventions. Otherwise, we might get very sick of the premium coffee that we have in our committee room here. Also, I just want to mention that today is going to be audio only, so there will be no clips to be had today either.
Colleagues, let's pass this important piece of legislation to ensure that first nations have clean drinking water for generations to come.
Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, June 5, 2024, the committee resumes consideration of Bill C-61, an act respecting water, source water, drinking water, waste water and related infrastructure on first nations land.
To help us with the clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-61, I would like to welcome our witnesses back today.
We have Nelson Barbosa, director general, community infrastructure branch, Department of Indigenous Services. We also have Rebecca Blake, acting director, legislation, engagement and regulations, Department of Indigenous Services. From the Department of Justice, we have Douglas Fairbairn, senior counsel.
I want to remind all members that the amendments are confidential and that subamendments are to be shared electronically or on paper in both official languages and sent to the clerk for distribution.
With that, let's get back to where we were on clause-by-clause consideration, starting with NDP-37. I will open the floor back up to Ms. Idlout accordingly.
