Mr. Viersen, that would be another central concern for us.
I am concerned on behalf of my community and our leadership that the federal government's legislation is seeking to legislate our identity. Our identity is linked to historic communities.
Like my colleague, Joanna Bernard, I have concerns as well about the registries and who could be qualified as Métis. I understand there is some present contention with indigenous identities generally. I'm best positioned to speak to Métis identity in Alberta.
Before any legislation moves forward, I would agree that it needs to be stipulated who specifically our Métis citizens are. We're concerned that this needs to be abundantly clear. We're not prepared to have our historical rights and our kinship ties, which are local to our communities, derided by an affiliate group that should be an advocacy group that's defined by provincial boundaries.
We have Métis communities across the border, in the United States. When we meet each other, we don't greet each other by saying, “I'm a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta”; we greet each other through our names, our kinship and the historic ties of where we come from.
Thank you.