I've heard a few. I've listened to a number of the former presentations, and I hear a theme wherein we get this sort of tension, and some folks think that we just need government to get out of the way.
I think that it is an inaccurate approach, because, when we talk about water, it requires collaboration. Water doesn't know boundaries; it doesn't know jurisdictions. It moves. We have to find ways to get along.
There are three ways that the federal government can play a very active role. Ms. Collins, you will know well that we've had a very disastrous number of years in British Columbia, yet there has been almost no effective presence of the federal government. That is a real lack. It's a missed opportunity, and it slows the build back component.
There are those kinds of infrastructure we talked about like the wetlands. We all benefit by enabling, investing and working with local community groups to ensure that plans are working and that there is a connection between the mayors, the chiefs, the business leaders and the industry champions. That is one obvious bundle.
There are also very complicated transboundary issues. We talk about transboundary not only within British Columbia. Take the Mackenzie basin as an example. It crosses half a dozen provincial and territorial lines. It needs coordination. It needs governance systems so that we can make decisions in real time in a really functional way. There's a really critical role.
Then, of course, there are international boundaries. Think of the Columbia, think of the Yukon, and think of the Great Lakes basins. These are places where the federal government has been a bit more active, but I think they are lagging. There is a real opportunity. These are very complex because of the many types of boundaries that we are talking about.
Then there is the final kind of boundary, which most Canadians don't think about very often. We also have indigenous nations, indigenous governments, authorities and laws that we have to reconcile with when we deal with that.
Again, these are very active spheres where the federal government should be involved and support those local initiatives. There are a number of simple pieces: the planning, with rules and implications; protecting and ensuring environmental flow, which has really significant implications for fish and has a very significant role for the federal government; and, of course, water quality and the quantity component.