The proposed park was presented by Canada back in the late 1960s. That's when the 1969 land withdrawal was done. That was over 7,000 square kilometres. At that time, our chief of the day, Pierre Catholique, refused to sign any documents to create a national park, because of the historical relationship where indigenous people were alienated from their traditional territories when these things happened. That's been sitting there.
The invitation by Parks Canada and Canada to Lutsel K'e has always been there. Lutsel K'e sat on it for the longest time, but industrial development pressures and threats to traditional territories were what triggered the elders of the community and those of us in the younger generations to pursue a protected area.
We didn't just jump to Canada. We've done international research on best practices. At the end of the day, the Gwaii Haanas and Haida Gwaii relationship gave us the comfort to approach Canada to see if there was still interest on Canada's part, with the understanding that we will build on the relationship that was established between Parks Canada and the Haida Nation.