Health committee  No, it hasn't. If you look at the continuum of implementing such a law, you not only have the policies, regulations, quality assurance, those types of standards, but you also have the ability or inability to enforce laws. Right?

Health committee  I think it's highly irresponsible of the federal government to not be able to answer that question at this committee right now. That's one of the outstanding questions we have that is going to really determine whether we state we're ready or not. I have to tell you that most co

Health committee  I would support that, yes, the caveat being that there needs to be a plan to deal with the impact of that. We certainly know that the cultural shift in Canada is changing now. We smell marijuana when we walk down the road in our urban centres now. What is that doing to the fami

Health committee  Yes, there are. I need to be clear on that. This is where I don't have the authority to give you any information as to where they are, but they do exist. Our first nations communities are entrepreneurial. They know what their sovereignty rights are, and they certainly are prepa

Health committee  I think so. I think it will prompt the federal government to again look at the community justice systems. Finding those solutions won't be of a one-size-fits-all nature. It will be very important for the federal and provincial governments to recognize that community justice progr

Health committee  Yes. The delineation here, again, is that the Métis community is absorbed by the mainstream. There is no land tenure. There are no treaties. There are no Indian Act issues to address. Much of our problem is the Indian Act. There is going to need to be, for us.... My response will

Health committee  First nations are saying it will be first nations. That's the issue right now. For example, being the Ontario regional chief, I don't have the types of delegated authorities that the province has. I'm merely a spokesperson on issues that I have a mandate to speak from, and that i

Health committee  Yes, that's correct. It has not been discussed yet to any great degree. There will be a push and pull for quite some time until it gets sorted out. There is no mutual understanding yet. That hasn't been an issue that has come to terms yet.

Health committee  I'm going to speak from the perspective of the sequence of our assemblies. Our first nations have almost tiered assemblies. For example, we have two major assemblies, and then we have special assemblies of chiefs and annual assemblies. The next major assembly for the AFN is in De

Health committee  Thank you, sir. I'll answer very quickly. We have been doing work. I must say that on one side that's a fair question, and on the other side it's a red herring. You do need resources to actually go deeper into issues and impacts of cannabis. If you lived in one of our northern c

Health committee  Okay. That was my first point. Second, we have the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation. I'll leave the document for the committee. It has already begun to lay out some of the initial discussion points and questions. There are questions here, “8. Key considerations for indigenous

Health committee  I'm going to keep this very straightforward. Again, there is a land tenure/land jurisdiction issue with respect to the Indian Act. That's going to be a very specific study, a very specific exploratory dialogue with first nations, because, as you know, first nations are now develo

Health committee  On our relationship with or impression of the current government, I'll speak specifically to the health file, because this is a multi-faceted issue. Cannabis is legal. It's social—

Health committee  The big picture?

Health committee  Our relationship is at a crossroads right now. We know that the federal government has made substantial commitments. There has been a setting of the table, if you will, but we've not yet experienced the full-meal deal from the federal government. It's really important to recogniz