Thank you, Minister, for being here today, and thanks also to the officials.
Minister, before I begin with my questions, I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all members of the standing committee. It has been a very busy year. I would extend the opportunity for you to comment briefly on some of the hard work that's been done here at committee.
We had an opportunity on this matter to listen to representatives from Stó:lo, and I appreciated very much the B.C. Treaty Commission, which is operating in the middle of some palpable tensions concerning in particular a section of land. I took the opportunity to ask some rather technical questions about watermarks and rock points, matters that get down to those tensions in so many ways. In your presentation, you have outlined the potential and the hope for some of these matters to be resolved and the mechanisms by which they will be resolved.
However, I need to clarify the record on the basis of their testimonies just two days ago, and I want to revisit quickly a couple of points, if you'll indulge me.
First of all, the Stó:lo representatives referred to the Yale First Nation as Stó:lo. In your view or that of departmental officials, is this accurate? What is the significance of this affiliation for the purposes of the B.C. Treaty Commission process? I think it bears out in other work the B.C. Treaty Commission might do.