Thanks for allowing us to present to the standing committee.
My name is Arnie Bellis. My Haida name is Gwaii Gwanglan. I'm a member of the Staa’stas Eagle Clan in the Haida Nation.
There's a lot to speak to. The young lady before me did a very good job of summarizing the history of Canada and its relationship with first nations.
I tend to look towards the Canadian Constitution that we fought for in the world wars. It talks about multiculturalism, rights and all those wonderful things that we live under.
I find it interesting that first nations people had to go to the Supreme Court numerous times to have those rights upheld and worked on.
I'll let the statistics of the land speak for themselves in terms of the employment and all the incarceration, and so on. They speak for themselves.
We used the resources for 10,000-plus years, and from there we developed a very sophisticated society. We found ourselves under the Indian Act, and people were working hard to move us to their line of thinking, in terms of their religion, and move us off our mythology.
In saying that, to a certain extent our intellect was stunted. Now we're back on track, and we're looking to use our resources to enhance those things, such as culture and mythology. Under the Constitution of Canada, we're allowed to do that.
As one thing, the Haida people went down to 580 people from 12,000 plus because of smallpox. Yet we're still trying to define our relationship with Canada, where all could benefit—and it works both ways.
We developed the IRN to speak for the working people of first nations. We're a non-partisan group. We're a young organization. We saw the need to participate in this discussion to try to evolve that relationship between first nations and Canada—and industry, too.
I have an extensive background working with industry and coming to some really positive situations that provide solutions for both parties.
I have been studying Bill C-15 and participated in a number of round tables and consultations and Zoom conferencing, and our members have done the same. Heather will add more detail to that.
Part of it is the economic development. That's one wedge of the pie. There are other wedges, too, that have to be addressed. I talked about the environment, the culture and things of that nature.
We also realize that other things exist in this world, and one of them is investors. In order to stand up more, and things of that nature, we have to have investors. First nations are not exempt from that. We like to attract investors but not give away the farm, so to speak. But also, we fully understand that we need that mechanism.
In saying that, I'll get right to it. We'd like to participate in the action plan and I think we could have a really good, clear conversation on how to make it enhance the relationship in a stronger way and to come to a place of greater understanding. There is understanding between first nations and Canada now, but that's evolving on a daily basis.
With that and talking to a friend in the Business Council of British Columbia, I know the UNDRIP situation is already starting to cost investors a bit. We need to concern ourselves with that if we want to make ourselves a reliable group to invest in.
With that, Mr. Chair, I'd like to thank you again, and I'd like to thank Romeo Saganash and the individuals who brought this to fruition so we could speak to it. I have some friends who went to the UN for a lot of years, you know, and took time out of their lives to develop this. I'd like to say hawaa to them and thank them very much for their sacrifice in being away from their families. I'd like to acknowledge that.