Thank you for the question.
I think it's really thought-provoking and relevant to our area in the Fort McMurray, Wood Buffalo and Treaty 8 territory.
I think about the first nations that we serve in the Athabasca Tribal Council, which are situated in the heart of oil sands. Our first nation communities have worked hard on building partnerships and establishing long-term agreements for the purpose of highly engaging in economic reconciliation, but the actual act of economic reconciliation really allows first nations to generate funds that put them in the position of creating their own indigenous law practice, legislation and policies to govern their communities. That is really at the heart of economic reconciliation. Some of the chiefs I have worked for over the last number of years have said that it's this ability to have the funding to drive the direction that a community wants to go to serve its people, under its own policy and legislation, as opposed to being dictated to about how funding needs to be spent on their people based on other people's priorities and direction. That shift is what I'm really seeing in our territory today.
We have Fort McKay First Nation, which is currently working on changing its land code. They have been investing their profits back into their communities in a way that makes sense in terms of developing policy and legislation around how they want to govern they communities, as I've seen in all of our first nations.
Economic reconciliation cannot be done alone, without cultural revitalization. Our first nations have really been focusing on that priority. As funds are being generated and their partnerships are being established with industry and government, they are also focusing on the economic reconciliation. It is those two pieces that need to come together—under the direction and guidance of our leadership—that really makes reconciliation—