Good afternoon. I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to the 75th meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
We acknowledge that we meet on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
Pursuant to our Standing Orders, our meeting today is in a hybrid format. Members are present either in person or on Zoom. The proceedings will be published on the House of Commons website. The webcast always shows the person speaking and not necessarily the whole room.
For those participating virtually, I'd like to outline a few rules, and then I'll come back with an apology and give you a sense of what's happening this afternoon.
You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting in French, English and Inuktitut. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen for those online, of floor, which is the real-time language being spoken, English or French. Please select your language now. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately by raising your hand, getting my attention or jumping in and we'll make sure interpretation is properly restored before we resume the proceedings.
For members in person, we know the drill. We don't have any guests here, so you know what to do.
Please wait until I recognize you by name and please address remarks through the chair, although we're a pretty collegial and informal group here. Please speak slowly and clearly to allow for our interpreters to follow what's going on. When not speaking, please mute your own microphone. We'll try to keep a speaking order.
For those joining us for the first time, when we get into the rounds of questions and answers, the members are responsible for choosing where they direct their questions. If you have something to say, you can always raise your hand, but I leave it to the member to decide if they're going to another person or not.
I also use a quick timekeeping tool here. The yellow card means that 30 seconds are left in your allotted time, and the red card means time's up. Don't stop mid-sentence, but wind up your thought when we hit the red card.
I would like to apologize for the delay in getting started today. We were planning on a vote. The vote is still expected, with a 15-minute bell, so when that happens, we will have to suspend until after the vote, which could be up to about a 25-minute interruption. I apologize for that.
With that, we're going to get right into our witnesses today, who are joining us on our land restitution study.
We have Chief Commissioner Celeste Haldane and Mark Smith of the BC Treaty Commission; Harold Calla, executive chair of the First Nations Financial Management Board; and Larry Innes, barrister and solicitor.
Welcome to each of you.
We'll give each of the organizations five minutes for opening comments.
Who would like to go first? Perhaps we'll go with Chief Commissioner Celeste Haldane.
If you're ready, we will get started. You have the floor for five minutes.