Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity today.
I want to take a minute at the beginning to thank all the folks who are here today: Mr. Daniels, Mr. Calla, Mr. Jules and also Mr. Berna, who is sitting there quietly in the background so far. The work you've done is incredible. I've had the privilege of seeing some of that work and am looking forward to the opportunity to hear what you have to say today to help us in this study.
I want to be really clear about the reason why we put forward this study and why we asked for this study. I know that there are many new committee members and that this is our first study of the new session, but historically this committee has worked really hard to find better outcomes for first nations communities.
In one of the submissions we received yesterday, from Mr. Jules, I read that “The indigenous economy has the youngest population, the fastest growing labour force, [has] significant unused...capacity” and is “underutilized” significantly. I would suggest to you that we have to figure this out and that doing so is critical to the future of Canada's success.
If I've learned anything from my past meetings with you folks, it's that good governance leads to capacity, that capacity leads to success, both fiscally and otherwise, and that success is ultimately the path to self-determination.
Mr. Calla, you've presented the road map project. I've had the privilege of seeing some of your work on that a couple of times, so I want to focus my first question around the road map project.
My question is actually quite simple. What are the departments doing, or, maybe better, what are they not doing, to provide you the support you would like to see so that the road map project ultimately becomes a success?