Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the presentation. This park is in my riding, and I'm very happy to see it reach this stage. It's been in the works for a long time. I know the chief who initially discussed it, Felix Lockhart, very well. He put a lot of effort into this.
I think we really have to look at how things have evolved over the last while in order to make this park happen. First of all, it's always very difficult to get four different governments to agree—the federal government, the Government of Northwest Territories, the Dene First Nation and the Métis. I think it shows the importance of this piece of land. It's located at the eastern part of Great Slave Lake, a beautiful part of the lake. There's forest, there's tundra—everything is there. It's very hard to access, of course.
This area is called “land of the ancestors” by the people from Lutsel K'e. It's a very important part of their country, and they want to see it happen. This is one of the first places where there's really been strong indigenous involvement. We're still trying to sort out the issues around how Wood Buffalo park was established and what it did to the indigenous people of that area when they couldn't trap, couldn't hunt and couldn't do anything in the park. That was their livelihood. I really understand the chief in 1960 saying that they couldn't have an area closed off to them, as their primary way of surviving was through hunting and fishing and trapping.
I do have a quick question on the process of the park. We'll have witnesses appear before us tomorrow, but I want to talk about the process of going from a reserve to an actual national park. Can you describe that a little bit more clearly for me? I'm not sure I followed it.