The Fisheries Resources Reconciliation Agreement is a little different from this direct government-to-government, nation-to-nation work. It's the Haida Nation working with our allies in the Coastal First Nations on a regional scale.
The fisheries agreement provides three main things.
First, and very important to the nation, is a commitment from Canada, through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, for collaborative governance when it comes to fisheries. It's something that is quite important, as we see the decline in many of the stocks over the years and we see practices we've disagreed with—including, currently, destructive bottom trawl fisheries that occur in Haida territories. The agreement has very strong language committing to transformative change when it comes to fisheries management and collaborative governance. We've set up a structure where we strive to work together with technical information, bringing in cultural and local knowledge and trying to come to consensus decisions, but still operating under each of our respective authorities. We may have disagreements, but we have dispute settlement mechanisms to work through those.
Second, it provides some commercial fishing opportunities through a trust to purchase access back from the market and bring it into the nations collectively through a commercial fishing company.
Third, it's to acquire access and bring it back to a community level to redistribute at smaller scales for community-based fisheries in order to stimulate local economies and access, somewhat as an interim measure. It's not based on fishing within our rights. It's a way to provide some economic opportunities on the ground in the short term, while we also build up a bigger, coast-wide commercial fishery that would be indigenous-owned by the seven nations.