Good afternoon, everyone.
I would like to call this meeting to order.
Welcome to the fifth meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
We're meeting to continue our study on barriers to indigenous economic development, and today we have two panels.
On the first panel we have Minister Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, and Minister Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs.
Supporting the ministers in their appearances today are the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, the Department for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, the Department of Indigenous Services, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario and Prairies Economic Development Canada.
The second panel will consist of Adam Jourdain, deputy executive director of the Corporation développement économique Nikanik,
Dawn Madahbee Leach from the National Indigenous Economic Development Board and Clint David from the Nunasi Corporation.
I want to ask everyone on site to comply with the health measures. We're very familiar with them.
Today interpretation services are available in English, French and Inuktitut. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately. 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.
For members participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the whole committee is meeting in person in the committee room. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name, and when speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
I'll remind you that all comments by members should be addressed through the chair.
Each minister is invited to speak for five minutes. This will be followed by a round of questions.
The first round of questions will allow members six minutes each. The order and the time for questioning for subsequent rounds will be as follows: Conservative, five minutes; Liberal, five minutes; Bloc, two and a half minutes; New Democratic Party, two and a half minutes; Conservative, five minutes; and Liberal, five minutes. If time expires during the round of questioning, we will complete the order.
I would now like to invite Minister Hajdu to start us off.