Thank you very much Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses.
Sometimes, in the order of the committee, you look at the agenda and think it would be nice to have the department officials after this panel, because we could go to them and ask the questions. We could say, “Hey, you're hearing the testimony. What's the response?” Unfortunately, they went first.
In my original line of questioning, I mentioned nations that we on this side of the House meet with quite often. Usually, the ATR process is one of the top three on the list of discussions we're having.
I would never name a nation in a committee setting like this without their direct permission, but we have a lot of concerns about the process and the timeline. Part of my questioning in the first round was around there being a lot of applications that seem on the surface to be quite straightforward and should be quite easy to approve. What I'm getting from you, Chief Robinson, is that it seems pretty straightforward. You want the ability to set up and start your path forward, and right now we're still waiting.
We had another chief just a second ago talking about nine square kilometres, I believe. In the scheme of things, that seems pretty small and reasonable, especially, as my friend Mr. Morin just pointed out, since it's still Crown land at the end of the day, due to the legislation that's been put in place. The fact is that we continue to have hurdle after hurdle, and this slow process—again, as I pointed out in the first round—for applications that seem straightforward.
I know you've answered many questions on this. I know there are other barriers. It's just overly frustrating. I don't really have a question on this, and you've added a lot, but if you want to respond, fire away. However, I have questions for the grand council chief beside you.