Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. Beyond legislating NWAC specifically into the board of directors, we would have to canvass our board of directors about specific organizations and other sectors that could be included in the legislation. We do ask this honourable committee this: If

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. Something else that NWAC does, which makes us unique among organizations, is that we do in fact have elders represented on our board of directors and throughout our organization. I think that's a unique perspective that NWAC will be able to bring to

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I think it's important that the calls to action be embedded in pretty much all that the Government of Canada does moving forward. There's certainly a space for it, I think, on the TRC's board of reconciliation. I think there's definitely room for th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question, honourable member. I think this is certainly a step in the right direction. Again, given the exclusion of indigenous women in such an important bill, I don't think it goes far enough. It certainly doesn't speak to subsection 35(4) of our Constitution

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry, but could you present that question again?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that specifically is something on which we would need to canvass our board of directors. I think what's important to acknowledge is that it goes beyond just having a fifty-fifty split of indigenous men and women or of men and women on the board, and we also need represent

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can certainly say that section 12 is simply not good enough. As President McBride said, NWAC's inclusion must be legislated in the same way as the other three NIOs. It's not good enough to say that NWAC isn't precluded or that NWAC might be able to get a position on the counc

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Again, NWAC'S position is that we need to have a legislated seat on the board. As President McBride has said, our work is unique. We have our own analytical tools, such as a culturally relevant gender-based analysis that is applied to everything we do. In addition to that, we'r

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I know it's a very interesting question and I think it's an issue that I will need to canvass our board of directors on before we can provide any sort of conclusive response on that. Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, that's correct. NWAC has not been consulted on this bill, and we have been waiting quite a long time for this piece of legislation to come forward. I think that it's not what this incredibly high-priority bill says; it's what it doesn't say, and the very concerning precedent