This is another recommendation from the Assembly of First Nations. Commendably, this bill deals with indigenous knowledge, traditional knowledge, and so on, and with giving recognition and respect to that kind of information as being important to impact assessment.
As we heard from testimony from the Assembly of First Nations, it is important to recognize that in communication and co-operation with indigenous peoples there be respect for sensitive information.
To give you an idea of this, quite often when working with indigenous communities there can be areas that are known for medicinal plants. They are specific areas that are culturally and often spiritually important. Once located and identified in communication with governments, indigenous peoples and their governments have reason to be concerned that those particular sensitive areas and that information could lead to the destruction of these particular sites or intrusion into the gathering of medicinal plants by indigenous people.
That's just one example to explain why this amendment that I'm proposing inserts the language “while protecting sensitive information” into the bill's phrase “cooperation with Indigenous peoples”.