This is really extraordinarily important. We know that under the previous system, there wasn't proper consultation with indigenous peoples. As soon as we came in, we made it much more robust through the interim principles, but we've also spent time working with the national indigenous organizations and also in listening to indigenous peoples, first nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples from coast to coast to coast. We know that indigenous peoples are often the most profoundly and directly impacted when a project is built, and they also want the capacity to be involved, to evaluate and assess potential impacts of projects, and also to monitor them.
The new impact assessment act now provides for meaningful collaboration with indigenous peoples, including through an early engagement process where we will design with indigenous peoples the consultation plan that we will be working in partnership with them on. Indigenous traditional knowledge will be a “must have“, not a “nice to have“. We know that this is a way to develop better relationships, to build better projects, and is also better for our longer term goal of reconciliation.