Thank you.
In regard to the health study, it's something we tabled 20 years or so ago in regard to what's happening in this area. It always boils down to the lack of funding. We were in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago and we mentioned this to the health minister as well. It was the same thing—lack of funding. It blows my mind that where we're situated is the economic engine of Canada, but we cannot find some money to do a health study that can give us an idea of what is going on in the area.
I can say, as the chief of the Mikisew, that we haven't ever been anti-industry at all. We know there are safer ways of doing things. That's why we're asking for these different guidelines and thresholds to be lowered, so that my people can have a chance for a higher life expectancy, like the rest of Canada. It blows my mind, as the chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, that the federal government would even consider Bill C-61, an act respecting water, source water, drinking water, waste water and related infrastructure on first nation lands.
Why do we have to be a second tier in this country when we were the first peoples of this land? That tells me that there are two tiers. Why can't we have the same access to clean drinking water that you guys get in Ottawa?
That's another thing. They talk about treat and release. I'll agree to treat and release if they can put that in a pipeline and you guys in Ottawa could drink that water first.