Good morning to all of our chiefs and leaders giving testimony today.
I'll start with Chief Louise, who's in the room here.
Welcome, Chief. You spoke about some of the stats in terms of modern treaties. They're very impressive. I have the map here in front of me. Was it 40% of the land mass that they cover? There are about 27 modern treaties, give or take, depending on how you define it, according to some of the stats and Canada itself.
I certainly agree with the notion that Canada needs to be 100% better in terms of implementing modern treaties, but I do see some challenges with this bill. I think some people would say it's not perfect, but let's not let perfect get in the way of progress. I would like to see maybe a little bit more teeth to it, quite frankly.
Looking at this map, it covers 40%. You have communities in here from the west coast to Inuit communities and your community on the Quebec-Labrador side. I've heard that this budget might have maybe a $2-million operating cost to start. Right now, you're having trouble, as a small first nation, getting into many government departments. Do you have faith that a $2-million start-up government arm will do right by implementing modern treaties? Is that enough to actually do the work that it's supposed to do?