Thank you, Minister.
Chief Darlene Bernard was a witness in this study and she said to our committee:
One thing I'm getting very frustrated with is that we've sent letters. We sent a letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans months ago, in August, saying, “We want you to get back here and talk to us, because there is a lot of unrest going on.” We never even got a response to it.
We're not getting responses when we're actually asking them to come to talk to us. That has to be changed.
Why didn't you meet with indigenous communities when they were first calling on you to resolve this issue before it escalated into violence?