International Trade committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. [Witness spoke in Cree] [English] To all the distinguished members of the committee, I'm very happy to be here acknowledging you all as friends and relatives. I also acknowledge the Algonquin peoples for hosting this on their ancestral lands. For me, from our AFN, I'm happy to be here.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, and Alberta.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  A good question. Again, Kukpi7 Wayne is going to be here later on today to talk about jurisdiction. That's for that territory in British Columbia. Even our Assembly of First Nations has our charter. You have one national chief. I'm not a grand chief. I'm a national chief elected by the 634, and 60% of the chiefs have to vote for me.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The catalyst was when former minister Jane Philpott called that emergency meeting. That was the catalyst that shed a light on this, not only nationally in Canada but internationally, and showed that something had to be done. That was the push to get something started. That's when committees were brought together, people were brought together and experts were brought together involving the national advisory committee.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a good question, again, and I know we've met with your leader as well many times and we've discussed these. I would say there are many important bills, but we always focused on C-91, languages; C-92, child welfare; and then C-262, the UN declaration. I said that I'd be a happy national chief if they all pass by the end of June.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. There is no question that things can always be made clearer. I've offered four recommendations to clear it up in four areas. You'll always look for ways to make it better and to improve it, but I'm always going to come back to that sense of urgency. Yes, let's make it better and improve it, but take it through the process as soon as possible for the appropriate votes in the House and then in the Senate.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. [Witness spoke in Ukrainian] [English] That's little bit of Ukrainski. I know your background. [Witness spoke in Cree] [English] That's “I'm happy to be here” in Cree. [Witness spoke in Cree] [English] I'm thanking you all, as relatives and friends, and I'm thanking you for acknowledging the Algonquin territory here.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a good question, Mr. Hogg, and I think the principles and values are there quite clearly. You broke it down really well: one to 11: principles and values, the details, commissioners and directors. We had a debate, or I still have a debate. Should we have a commissioner for the Cree?

Canadian Heritage committee  I made some recommendations in my earlier comments. You can refer back to those in terms of how to improve it.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the vote. Thank you, everybody. Even Hunter.

Canadian Heritage committee  I made earlier comments about the portability of services and programs. We want to ensure that the services and programs can be obtained regardless of residency. I said three things. We can use technology. We can also exert the pressure on provincial, territorial and municipal governments, based on the comment that all governments have an obligation.

Canadian Heritage committee  It will go on the third.

Canadian Heritage committee  I will gladly say, for the record, that we need all levels of government and institutions working in partnership to bring back fluency. The goal is fluency. We do not want any more of our first nations languages to be gone away, to be lost. So that's the goal of this bill. I mentioned earlier that 74% of Canadians want this as well, revitalization and focusing on indigenous languages, to bring them back.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much.

Canadian Heritage committee  Did we have conversations with the ministry regarding the finance piece? They're going to begin formally tomorrow. We had a co-development process, and we all had reps around the co-development table. The gentleman to my right has a lot of experience in co-developing federal legislation, going back to the specific claims tribunal.