That's a big question. What would I tell them in one sentence? I think I would say that in the true spirit of reconciliation, you can't say that the community needs to identify for us to move forward. You have to come to the table with the community. Establish that trust and follow up that trust with real concrete actions, not just commitments or dialogue, but real concrete actions to drive change. There are so many communities that have been experiencing these recurring natural disasters, and I'm sure at times they feel let down. Actions speak a lot louder than words, so I would encourage Indigenous Services Canada to take a full, comprehensive inventory of what they believe the needs of first nations communities are in this area and then start taking some concrete actions to find ways to address those, because I agree with you. I would hope that the next two auditors general after me won't be having the same dialogue with Parliament.
On November 28th, 2022. See this statement in context.