Mr. Speaker, Canada has absolutely been noted internationally for being a transparent nation. That is why the expertise of Canadians and former members of Parliament like John is being solicited in other places. Other nations recognize that transparency and accountability are linked and what is also linked to these two imperatives is economic development and prosperity for whole nations.
There are issues within some first nations communities which really reduce the ability for economic development to take root and for communities to prosper. Our committee travelled from coast to coast and met with some of the most prosperous first nations in Canada today. We have some great examples of prosperous communities. When we asked them what the fundamentals were for getting first nations out of poverty and doing incredibly, every community told us that the first thing that was absolutely essential was trust within the community and full transparency about what went on so every community member would be is aware of that and second to make that information public so outside investors would flock to the community.
In terms of building prosperous communities, this is the first step. I join with my colleague in saying this is important for all nations, including our first nations.