Thank you, chief and councillors and Mr. Long, for being here.

I’m understandably supportive of the bill, and when I read through the treaty document, it is kind of like a dream come true. Mr. Long knows that we toiled in all kinds of different ways a number of years ago, but we never got anywhere close to the richness of this. So congratulations to you and the Government of Canada.

I don’t have any specific questions about this, although I would invite you to say a little bit more about the community safety officers and the constructive link with the province. But let me come to what is my question: You have achieved pretty remarkable success in taking your nation from a pretty struggling set of circumstances to a degree of prosperity and a degree of autonomy and discipline and the like, and my question is whether this or something similar to this is relatively easily replicable by other nations? Or, do they have to have gotten to a stage where you are of advanced thinking and imagination about how to deliver the governance of your nation? And this might even be a question for the minister, but how easily replicable is this so that we can see these kinds of developments, not just in other Dakota nations, but in hundreds of First Nations across the country?

Describe that a little bit more to Senator Coyle, because you were talking about community safety officers, where they come from, who handles that, the provincial side of the equation.

Your nation, for example, has had stable leadership for quite some time, and you are clear representatives of that. But the point of the Land Code, there are some prerequisites to really move into this area. You know what they are. The Government of Canada knows what they are. There could be guidance for others; if you want to move to this, this is the platform that you have to build first?

It has to have been a frustration that the Indian Act shackles on development required you to be more imaginative than the typical business might have had to be in Saskatoon, or wherever, to find some economic successes. This is a comment more than anything. It is nice to see that falling away so that you can have autonomy in advancing, wisely, the use of your land for success.

You got a postage stamp of a postage stamp. Thank you.

This is not really a question. In observing the kind of discipline and responsibility that you gentlemen have led your First Nation with, I think about Senator Hartling’s question as an analogy. She asked if you have a big celebration planned. As I understand, chief, you said that the time will come but right now you have this work to do.

I have had some experience at the Dakota Dunes golf course. This is my point — not how bad my golf is, but Whitecap Dakota built a world-class golf course. It was the best new golf course in the country when it was established. When they build golf courses, a lot of places around this country build grand cathedrals with clubhouses. You have seen those in a lot of places. That’s often why a lot of golf courses go bankrupt. The Willows in Saskatchewan is a good example. At Whitecap Dakota, it felt that for a number of years the golf club had a classy golf course. It was run out of almost — I don’t want to call it a shed but a trailer almost. You gentlemen will agree that it was very modest until the financial and fiscal foundation for the golf course was secure and then you built a more modest but still substantial facility. I have always been impressed with that small example of the discipline that you showed in building not only the business enterprises but also the community as a whole. When Senator Hartling asked about the celebration, I was reminded of that. Your reply was, “We will get there, but we have other work to do first.” This is really a congratulations to you that you have gotten to this point over decades — not just the recognition of the nation, and so on, but having built an economically stable and much more vibrant community than you inherited years ago. That’s to your credit and to the credit of the people of the nation. I hope they appreciate all you are achieving on their behalf.