Mr. Speaker, in a recent speech, the Senior Executive Vice-President and Vice Chairman of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Jim Prentice, said that he thought the duty to consult on the part of the Crown with the first nations of Canada was a fundamental obligation that applied to the Government of Canada and could not, in fact, be subcontracted to any other agency and that the failure of the Government of Canada to recognize this threatened economic development right across northern Canada.
Would the Prime Minister care to comment on that statement?