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  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  Just quickly, you know, the regulatory impacts of this legislation are going to be huge on our communities. We're dealing with a long list of policy and legislative issues on a day-to-day basis. This one is going to be huge because it's not just the health, not just the economic,

Health committee  I have no comment on that. I have not put any thought to that.

Health committee  For first nations, again, I think the overall effort in the tobacco control strategy and what the federal government has done around packaging is based on prevention. We definitely don't want people getting sick as a result of cannabis. If we use packaging as a way to prevent ill

Health committee  Obviously there is always going to need to be public and private sector interests. Our nations need to find ways to be participatory to help sustain communities. One of the obvious ones will be in the area of health, possibly in education, but to ensure that there is an economic

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Boozhoo, wachiyeh, sekoh, shekoli, and good morning. First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional territory of the Mohawk people, Tyendinaga. I am presenting here as the Ontario regional chief. I'd like to acknowledge the leadership that is with us here today, as well

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to couch my answer based on the situation we had in the early 2000s. For about 90 years, our community, the Serpent River First Nation, where I was the chief for 10 years, was faced with an encroachment of development. First it was forestry, then it was a sulphuric acid

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think we're seeing a lot of commitments coming out of the federal government. I believe that the deployment of the 10 principles that would guide the bureaucracy and other agencies and departments as to how to deal with our issues is helpful, but it remains to be seen. We're st

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I will answer that quickly, and I'll offer the rest of the time to my friend and colleague next to me. We just sat with Minister Bennett in Ottawa in the last couple of days and we had this discussion. It's very important to recognize that the years of colonialism and instituti

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We were not. It's frustrating that the minister said with a bit of a discrete smile that when we met before we weren't advised. She didn't indicate to us if she knew or not. It's really a dark curtain approach to some of these fundamental changes. The federal government must do m