Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses. I really appreciate your coming to speak to us today.
It's a very important issue that we're discussing today. The fiscal reality in the north with our indigenous governments is, at times, very bleak. We have 15 tables where negotiations are going on, and self-governance and land claims are what people are trying to achieve. Up to 2015, the government of the day—the Conservative governments—only wanted to use own-source revenue to fund the indigenous governments. Once they achieve self-governance and are attempting to be shoulder-to-shoulder with other governments, indigenous governments still have to find a way to pay for the governance—for their people, for their staff, for offices, for everything. That changed in 2015. We started looking at self-government fiscal policies that will fund governments properly. We've introduced a 5% minimum procurement, which I don't think the Conservatives support, and at some point, they will probably cut it if the government changes. It's really important that we recognize that today we're talking about a fiscal tool that indigenous governments will use. Procurement is part of many different sources that they'll need because there's no one source that will finance a government properly.
Maybe I'll start with you, Natan. Could you talk about the government's position in procurement and whether there needs to be more done so that indigenous governments can move forward? I know we talked about all kinds of problems with the process that people are identifying, but what do we need? This is an opportunity to talk about economic development in our communities, so I'd like to hear your recommendations.