Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Harry Deneron, and I represent the Acho Dene Koe First Nation from the southwest of the territory.
You know, Mr. Chairman, it's pretty hard for me to pull up a chair here after the previous presentation, and sitting next to Mr. Fabian over here.
I was born and raised in northeast B.C. Today all the development is happening in the Horn River basin and the Liard basin, and yet the B.C. government doesn't recognize us there. Today they confiscate the wildlife we get, and we're threatened not to set nets in certain lakes. It's very difficult.
I became a chief in 1975. That's a long time ago. At that time we had one voice, one organization, the Dene Nation. We laid claim to the entire north to the ocean. Of course we don't think alike, and we don't speak alike. I think it was in 1990 that a group from a different region walked out, and we were left alone with the Dehcho First Nations.
Five and a half years ago, we asked the government to see if we could do a stand-alone land comprehensive claim. I guess today I can say that in early December last year we signed off on our AIP. It's in the hands of the minister to either sign on or reject it. I'm hoping he will sign on so that we can move forward.
I guess we're here because of devolution, and Bill C-15, and the super-board. I've been through all of these before. Devolution I don't have any problem with. It's nothing new. Where I have a problem with devolution is if we think we're going to create lots of work and be prosperous. I know that to work in northeast B.C., you have to have some skill and be certified with six tickets to work for an oil company.
I think in 1978 it was the last time in the territory, in and around Liard, that we had some training undertaken by “Hire North”, as it was called. They were the ones who built the highway north of the B.C. border. Every one of those people who went through that training, who were in the workforce, and who had skills have either gotten old, or I'm sorry to say, passed away.
Every time you leave human resources development with no training, you're asking for big trouble. I don't see that we're going to greatly benefit from devolution, but I believe it's not too late. I think we can start training, and I think we can undertake those developments that will happen in our region.
The super-board I have no problem with either. We have to say that in the past the Mackenzie Valley water board made recommendations, only to find that enforcing the recommendations were federal Fisheries and Oceans or federal land-use inspectors.
So if we feel that there should be a new way to protect our environment, we must have something with enforceable rules that apply to those recommendations.
I work in northeast B.C. where there is a board or commission called the BC Oil and Gas Commission. They send you a notification telling you that certain companies have made an application to work in your area, and you have 30 days to respond or no response is required. That's it. I don't have a problem with that.
They also have very strong enforcement people if someone breaks the environmental rules and regulations. I believe that it's about $10,000 a day. We don't have that in the territory. I've never seen it. So if there is a change, I don't have any problem with it if we do it right. I know some people are very protective of the treaty that happened for us in 1921 or so. Today we find that the only thing our kids do is play games and none of them are out in the bush. I believe there are only two people who trap in our area today. We have 776 members, so we do have a problem there too.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you.