Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I very much appreciate the comment and the question. For me, there's a real opportunity with the work the Prime Minister and the national chief have set out to do with the redrafting, re-crafting, and renewing of the comprehensive claims policy. The very issues we're dealing with today deal with the failure of the current policy.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's an unresolved tension between section 35 rights and the content of the Yale treaty. It's been boiled down to access, but it's not access. Right now those fishing sites belong to Stó:lo families. They're managed by Stó:lo families. They're not managed by federal fish officers.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  They are working. They attend Lower Fraser Fishing Authority meetings along with our technicians and our leadership. So it is possible. There are some issues where there is common ground. But we don't have common ground because the federal chief negotiator is not interested in seeing any amendments, or because the provincial chief negotiator is not interested in seeing any amendments.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're engaged now as Stó:lo leaders in talking about what we need to do together to organize ourselves to look at how we manage lands, resources, and opportunities. Our leadership is keen to avoid what's taking place today, where one part of our family is creating a potentially violent altercation on the river and on the banks of the river.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good morning. I was there in 1992 when then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Premier Mike Harcourt, the first nations summit leadership of Grand Chief Edward John, the late great Chief Joe Mathias, and Miles Richardson signed the agreement that created the BC Treaty Commission. I was a witness to that ceremony.