Thank you so much to the witnesses for being here.
My first questions are for you, Mr. Watso.
I have a real issue with the whole crisis of pretendianism. I said it in the House the other day. We have all of these people using very limited resources, and getting economic benefit, who don't have to deal with the things we have to deal with. My colleague MP McLeod spoke about the intergenerational impacts of attending residential school—the sixties scoop and child welfare systems—but they get all the economic benefit. That was very clear to me. I worked in academia for many years, and there were so many people who got research grants on the basis of being indigenous. They got multi-million dollar research grants, and they weren't even indigenous. They had all the privileges without the things we have to deal with, including just being safe on the streets, especially indigenous women and girls. It's also boys and men, in fact, in terms of the violence we experience just by living.
In saying that, I asked one of the last witnesses, Dr. Palmater, about membership lists and the fact that many nations still don't have control of their membership lists—that those decisions are made about us but without us.
In terms of procurement, how would it help if first nations could regain sovereignty and control over those membership lists?