One of the most important things we've learned in working with first nations in B.C. in particular is that where there is a great deal of fluidity in terms of jurisdiction, decision-making, issues management, and all kinds of things--and we have been working in that area for quite some time now--what has become quite apparent to us is that only in partnership can we succeed in anything that we do in the communities.
I think there are also a couple of other considerations to take into account here.
When people say there would be some credibility attached to a Canadian company that would be regulated by the Canadian government overseas, people question that statement and whether or not the fact that the Canadian government is regulating something means it's going to provide a solution for a community that's going to address its needs. Specifically, first nations here have pointed to that in conversations about Bill C-300. I don't think we can say internationally that we've figured this out in a way that keeps communities whole and protects their human rights and their dignity.
So there are questions to be asked in that regard, but I think the other thing that's really important is that our experience, certainly with first nations, is that there are components that are done on a collaborative basis, where we learn from each other, and there are components that have a legal element to them, and they're both at play. They're effective together. We work with that.
The problem I have with Bill C-300 is that we've been working very hard on this issue for quite some time now and we're very close to seeing the results of John Ruggie's work. Our CSR counsellor is consulting with us extensively to try to build some kind of Canadian framework that makes sense for us, that does have that operational detail. I really don't think you can regulate things effectively without looking at the operational detail.
We've been doing this for only a few years. This isn't an area of practice that we have a lot of experience with in terms of managing it to a good outcome. It does take some time. That's what we spend a lot of our time on as an association: helping people to understand how they manage this stuff on the ground.