Thank you very, Mr. Chairman. If you'd just let me know when I have about 20 seconds left in my five minutes, I'd appreciate it.
I want to thank all the witnesses for coming forward today. They were excellent presentations. I know some of it was at short notice, which makes it even more difficult to get translation and everything else done, but I found the presentations to be very educational.
Ms. Crowder started to allude to something that's been said before, which is that trust is a critically important part of all these processes. I agree 100%. We as a government have to develop that relationship with you on an individual basis, because it's something we have to work forward to the longer we're in government. It's equally important that we have that trust and continue to develop it. We're at a fairly fresh stage of that right now. I think this is a great first step.
It's very important to set the dark days of the Liberal government and their broken promises behind us. It's also important to recognize who our real friends are. You know, at one point in time the homeless actually thought the NDP was their friend, until they started voting against every initiative that came before them to help them out in the budgets.
I would actually like to start by asking a question of Deputy Grand Chief Hare. You put forward a very detailed presentation and you've obviously put a lot of time and thought into this legislation. Would you consider that what you're doing today is consultation? Would you consider this process right here to be consultation with the Government of Canada, and have you had an opportunity to discuss your recommendations--the nine recommendations that you've put a lot of thought into--with the AFN before they brought this forward?