Thank you for that.
I think that it would be easy to look at it in the way that you're suggesting, in terms of what is contemplated in this bill, but as the chief mentioned, the inherent right to self-determination, which is what was pursued at the Supreme Court, doesn't necessarily reflect the way that we view our inherent right to self-determination. While the Supreme Court is certainly raising the spectre of first nations being able to take over a certain kind of jurisdiction insofar as child and family services, on this bill, we feel like the unfinished business of treaty is really where our inherent right shines. The inherent right is the reason why our nations were able to achieve treaties, so if we were to work through that realm, through the treaty rights that we have or the treaty relationship that we have with the Crown, our inherent rights would be automatically recognized.
The feelings of chiefs in our region lead them to question why we have to work through the Supreme Court of Canada process to achieve something that we already have. If we were to deliver based on that, what we're saying is that there would be recognition already of where we are at with the treaty relationship in the place that people call Alberta, and we remind everyone here that our peoples were here well before there was a province called Alberta. If we were to start from that space, the inherent right would be delivered. However, we're not there, so we continue to have to go through domestic courts to try to achieve it.