To date, our involvement has tended to be writing letters of concern at the senior bureaucratic level. When development is being proposed or moving through the approval process in Alberta at a rapid pace, the citizens from the aboriginal governments whom you've heard, the people, are very concerned about what's happening in Fort McMurray.
We recognize, which is why we're getting organized with our water strategy, that we have to be able to come to the table as a collective so we have a northern voice on issues about consultation, about prior notification, about systems that engage outside the boundaries, in this case Alberta, where the federal government can trigger that with their own legislation, so there's an opportunity to raise those concerns.
Currently, of course, some of the big concerns are the massive tailings ponds. Because of the prevailing winds, the airborne pollution tends to go from west to east, which is often in our favour, but they do periodically blow toward the north, and we're not very far away. Those stacks are fairly high, so there are all the airborne issues as well through the particulate matter.
One of the big issues we're concerned about is what's happening upstream from us, and we're trying to get ourselves organized to deal with it as constructively as possible through our strategy so we can negotiate bilaterals in a very clear and effective way, get the federal government engaged, and look at how we do this because we are neighbours with Alberta. We have huge ties. They're one of our biggest trading partners.
There's a history that goes back hundreds of years, thousands if you count the aboriginal peoples' ties. It's a common trade route. So they're not the enemy; it's just that we're involved in very difficult situations as we balance the need for resource development and the protection of the environment. We want to make sure we're organized in the north, that our thinking is clear, and that we can come forward with a position.
While we're neighbours and friends, it's not going to preclude us from having hard negotiations. We want to be able to protect what we think are some critical values, and that's one of the areas where we have a concern.