Thank you, Chair.
I too want to thank all of you for being here today. I know that this has been a long journey.
I know that it's been said already, but I'm going to say it again: This is a very significant and defining moment, both for Métis people across our country and for our country in general. I think we need to get this right. I think having the honest and what I call in my interactions with people “adult” conversations sometimes—which means that sometimes we need to have difficult conversations to get through the journey together—is maybe part of the process that we're going to go through today.
I have about seven different directions that I want to go in here. I'll try to focus on a couple in the next four minutes.
Just for clarity, I want to go back to the comment my colleague Mr. Schmale made or the question he had asked. It was about Parliament not having to pass legislation to enact the treaties later. We do have a legislative summary from our very capable Library of Parliament analysts. They very clearly told us that “Parliament will not need to pass additional legislation to implement future treaties or supplementary self-government agreements with listed Métis governments. Rather, any such agreements will be brought into force by the Governor in Council.” That seems pretty clear to me, unless the analysts have some other reason to clarify that for me. I'm assuming they don't.
Where I want to go with this, just quickly, is the timing of all this. This all started way back in about 2018 with MOUs. Then there were agreements in 2019. There was an updated agreement in February of 2023. I think, for each of you, they're all unique agreements.
With that long preamble, let me simply ask each of you this: What's next? If this legislation is passed, each of you will enter into a process. That will be an independent process, if I understand it correctly. I also understand that there are some very clear next steps and some time frames that include a window of about two years, starting from when you signed those agreements.
Can you clarify for everybody in this room, each of you, what's next if this legislation gets passed?