Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank the witnesses for coming today.
Mr. Trump, my colleague and I will use our first seven and five minutes respecting your time obligations. And of course Chief Toulouse and I are no strangers. He's joined me on a number of occasions to celebrate our government's unprecedented investments in key critical infrastructure projects across northern Ontario. We have had good relations in those regards.
I want to talk about your program and the important work you do in the context of a specific example, because I think it reminds us of just how important this is.
Earlier today I had an opportunity to meet with the industrial stakeholder involved with the Cliffs project. We spoke briefly before the meeting. This represents one of the largest resource opportunities in northern Ontario, and a golden opportunity for first nations communities to be involved.
One I'm thinking of is Webequie First Nation in the great Kenora riding. We're very enthusiastic about getting involved in the CEAA directive from the Minister of the Environment late this fall. I acknowledge that some of the communities that are involved in the Matawa organization may be at odds with that decision, but I support their desire to go ahead in an effective and efficient manner respecting the opportunities that are there and the support that's been provided so far by our government with respect to infrastructure in this regard.
Could you tell me the critical elements of education and training specifically for the environment? The Cliffs project guy and I spoke today about how the government and this industrial partner are going to be involved in addressing Webequie First Nation's primary concern grant, and that was to have real capacity to participate in these environmental processes, which I can only assume help them grow a better understanding of how the whole project would go. Can you address that and talk about these institutional certificates or the flexibility that you might have to train certain community members to become involved in this important process because this is what the community has asked? Please feel free to use the rest of my time--all four and a half, almost five minutes of it--to fill me in on this important program and the work you do.