I believe it can protect our rights. The council will have that opportunity. If it has government-wide access to information and data, it can bring that forward in ways we've not been able to do before, so I think it can help. It doesn't mean that the issues we have today don't require alternative measures to deal with those kinds of things, but, as I have said several times when I've come here before, whatever you do, you have to have a picture in your mind of what you want to see 20 years from now. We can't expect an overnight solution here.
We have to deal with the realities of colonialism. We have to deal with the suffering and the poverty that exists in our communities. It has to be reported to Parliament, and parliamentarians have to weigh in on the progress that's being made.
Too often when we establish policy, we can't wait five years for a census to determine the effectiveness of the policy change. We need a real-time process of evaluation of whether it's working. There are initiatives under way through a number of organizations and institutions in this country that are working with the departments to help achieve that.
I think it can help, but we need an opportunity to be able to report to this council so that the report can go back to Parliament.