I call this meeting to order.
Good afternoon and welcome to the twenty-third meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
We are gathered here today on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation.
Today we begin our fourth study of arctic sovereignty, security and emergency preparedness of Indigenous Peoples.
On today's first panel, we will be hearing from Chief Paul-Émile Ottawa, Atikamekw Council of Manawan; Raymond Lamont, chief negotiator and special projects lead, Tsay Keh Dene Nation; and hopefully, our third witness, Debbie Lipscombe, executive director, Grand Council Treaty No. 3, who is not on yet.
I would like to remind you of the requirements of the Board of Internal Economy regarding physical distancing and wearing masks.
To ensure our orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
Members or witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services in English, French and Inuktitut are available for the first part of today's meeting. Please be patient with the interpretation. There may be a delay, especially since the Inuktitut has to be translated into English first before it can be translated into French, and vice versa. The interpretation button is found on the bottom of your screen in English, French or Inuktitut. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately. We will pause and try to fix the problem.
The “raise hand” feature at the bottom of the screen can be used at any time if you wish to speak or alert the chair. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly and, when you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
This is a reminder that all comments should be addressed through the chair.
We will begin this first panel. For the benefit of the witnesses, we will be giving you each five minutes to make opening remarks, after which we will proceed to questions. Without further ado, I would like to welcome our two witnesses.
I invite Chief Paul-Émile Ottawa, of the Atikamekw Council of Manawan, to speak first for five minutes.
Chief Ottawa, you have the floor.