Thank you to my colleague, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Blaney, for that question.
I think one of the biggest challenges, as pointed out by my colleague, is the lack of willingness by DFO to engage in a productive and progressive manner with indigenous communities, such as Tla'amin, to enforce natural resource protection laws.
The other challenge, it seems, is the lack of willingness by DFO to cross-designate our enforcement officers to take some of those initiatives off their plate. If there's one thing we can speak confidently on, it's that DFO fisheries officers are an under-resourced federal enforcement body.
For our region, the qathet Region, there are only two or three officers at any given time, and they have a large area to patrol. That's the same in a lot of other parts of Canada. They do not have the physical ability to patrol and enforce their mandate, let alone serve the desires of Tla'amin Nation or other indigenous communities to protect their resources and their traditional practices.
I think if there were clear direction by the government to DFO for them to start engaging with and working with nations to enforce and protect natural resources, that would be a very good start. As well, the push from the government to the ministry to start cross-designating and funding indigenous guardian programs that are well within the act, as well as treaty sections within the Fisheries Act itself, would will be very good starts.