Thank you, Chair.
Let me just say what a pleasure it is to listen to this powerful and inspiring testimony from our witnesses.
I'm so glad that you have been able to give your time to us today.
I represent a rural riding in northeast Alberta, and I'm very proud to represent all of the constituents in Lakeland, including nine first nations and Métis communities, which I work with on a regular basis to try to figure out real, tangible ways that we can do things exactly like the things we are talking about today. Of course, it won't surprise you that nearly every community in my region, in that part of Alberta, has a long history of private sector proponent partnership, partnerships with academic institutions and all levels of government to responsibly develop the resources in that area, primarily oil and gas and heavy oil, and they are also the leading contractors and business owners certainly in the service supply area of the industry throughout the region.
I'm always looking forward to hearing testimony like yours as to how we can continue to advance on economic reconciliation. I am inspired by the communities that I represent. They create jobs not only for their own communities but for people all around their communities throughout the region and throughout the province.
I am seized with many of the challenges that you've talked about. These are, primarily, access to capital, capacity building in communities so that they can effectively participate in the regulatory process, and the necessity for the Crown to meet their obligations for two-way dynamic consultation with indigenous communities rather than just checking it off on a list instead of sending a decision-maker to the table, certainly as the last witness was talking about, to rapidly meet the basic infrastructure challenges that hold back indigenous communities.
Adam, I think you wanted to get into this a little bit more. Maybe I'll do a two-for-one and then each of you can address these questions in turn.
I would just love to give you the opportunity to expand in specifics on two fronts. One is recommendations to deal with the risk aversion of the Crown or the government, rolls upon rolls of red-tape barriers that can be reduced, and the other is more specific recommendations for access to capital.