[Witness spoke in Sechelt]
I would like to thank everybody, Mr. Chair.
My traditional name is yalxwemult. I share that with my grandmother and great-grandmother. I am the chief of the Sechelt Nation. I am the first elected woman chief of our nation. Here's a fun fact: When we were required to abandon our hereditary chiefs and go to an election process, my grandmother was the first female councillor voted in at that time. I have a bit of a legacy to live up to.
Thank you for allowing me to come to speak to you today about the derelict vessels throughout Canada. In British Columbia, the Sunshine Coast is the “land between two waters”. Our community sits between the ocean and the inlet. We are surrounded by water. The Sechelt people are known as the “salmon people”. Salmon and marine resources are integral to who we are. As Sechelt people, we are unique in our way of life. The health of our marine environment is essential. Over the last number of years, we have seen the collapse of salmon species here, as we've seen across Canada, as well. The health of our marine environment has been affected in such a way that our resources have been impacted by many things, including derelict boats. For many years, we have sought to address derelict vessels in our swiya. The irresponsibility of others is saddening to our community, which has the incredible responsibility of cleaning that up. It's massive.
As stewards of our land, we have always worked to protect and more recently restore our environment. We are very committed to ensuring the enhancement of our people. We are looking at ways to protect our forests, waters and lands. Our most recent partnership with B.C. was to address the dock management plan in our swiya. We've been very successful. Working with them to address all the areas that have impacted our way of life has been a long process.
Food security is huge in our community. The fact that we are unable to collect food in the way our ancestors did is very concerning and serious. We're trying to work on restoring all of those areas. Derelict boats in our waters are a big part of that. I am very fortunate to live on the water, but I look out of my window with my cup of coffee in the morning and see all the dead boats sitting out there. It's very sad. We've talked at length about how we can address this and what it would take to help us begin the process of restoring and removing them from our waters.
I thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving me the opportunity to voice our opinion.