I've been involved in a lot of organizations in the Fort McMurray area, all of these organizations that monitor the environment. The government really holds them to task--or so it seems--to make sure that everything is protected, and that no species will be lost and stuff like that.
Now, that power that I'm talking about, that they have, is an organization that is 47 members at a table. We were there at one time. I had formed an elders committee as they requested. When I started working with my elders on that committee, the government and industry didn't know what to do with us. The knowledge that they have....
I told them that the knowledge they were talking about in oil sands development and what they were doing was 50 to 60 years old. The knowledge I was talking about was thousands of years old. There's a big difference.
So if you really want to look at the environment and what's happening and make sure that it's sustainable development and if you want to save the species, talk to the people who've been there and who have used these resources for thousands of years.
Don't go to an academic and say, “Well, okay, this guy knows.” The way he knows is that he read it someplace else. That's how he knows. The way I know is that I lived that life--for 72 years.
Thank you.