Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a segue to my Member's statement. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to welcome to the House members and guests of the International Bar Association's Indigenous Peoples Committee. With a membership of over 40,000, the International Bar Association is the global voice of the legal profession.

Committee Chair Steven Cooper and Vice Chair Lina Lorenzoni organized an "Indigenous to Indigenous business knowledge exchange program" which has leaders from the Northwest Territories engaging with counterparts in Colombia. Mr. Cooper, as many Members may know, is a partner in Ahlstrom Wright Oliver & Cooper and is a former long-term resident of Hay River and a legal advocate for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis across the North. In July 2015, First Nations representatives from the Northwest Territories attend three communities in Colombia to interact with leaders there. The purpose of the exchange was to discuss the evolution of the relationship between northern Canadian First Nations and extraction companies. The Indigenous people in Colombia are suffering through many of the growing pains that were experienced in the Northwest Territories in the 1970s and 1980s and are looking to their Indigenous colleagues here for guidance.

The Northwest Territories is being held up as the paradigm for change in Colombian Indigenous circles. The success of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit in regaining control and establishing autonomy in the Northwest Territories is an inspiration and a framework for change in Colombia. The visit this week to the Northwest Territories is phase 2 of the project sponsored by the IBA. They are getting to visit some companies and municipal governments to see how we do business. I would like to thank the organizers for coming here during this sitting to see how our government system works. I am proud to say this could be their future model for them. I would like to thank the Premier and his office and his staff for allowing them here today and to show them around the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.