My thanks to all our guests here today.
I listened to what you had to say here today, and we listened to panels yesterday in Yellowknife. I think in many ways the south needs to learn from the north. You still have your challenges, but I think many, many things have been done very well. I certainly look at the province of British Columbia and say that we have a lot longer way to go to get to where we need to be. I do want to acknowledge the work you've done over many years in getting to that place.
I also want to say that my perception was that once we worked through those difficult issues of specific comprehensive claims.... The degree to which there are challenges with the implementation is something that I know we as a committee have heard loud and clear. We've had some good recommendations on that particular issue.
There are a few areas I want to go here. First of all, there have been some pretty significant commitments by the current government in terms of what they're going to do and where they're going to go. I worry sometimes, because we have a moratorium that was announced on oil and gas. Down in Washington, I think, all of a sudden a lot of your land is being offered out as parks. We have a carbon tax that perhaps will impact the north more than any other place in this country.
My perception is this: given the kind of agreements that are in place, was it not your expectation that there should have been significant dialogue on all three of those items before they were arbitrarily...? I don't know if you had a few minutes' notice or an hour's notice, but I don't think you had what I would say is consultation.
I'll start with your thoughts, perhaps.