One of my colleagues, one of the chiefs I work with always uses this line when we meet with government officials, “Nothing about us without us.” When it comes to talking about issues that impact our communities, whether it's climate change, whether it's education, health care, we need to be there. We need to be involved. We need to be meaningfully engaged in the process because what you develop in Ottawa, whether it's policy, legislation, law, it impacts us in ways that sometimes put lives at risk, or sometimes we lose people. I think it's important that we have a dialogue like this, but we need to carry that forward in a meaningful way.
On April 14th, 2016. See this statement in context.