We don't oppose a modern treaty commissioner. We welcome it, if it works for the modern treaties. The thing we want Canada to understand is that you're going to create a two-tiered system when it comes to treaty. We know that the agreements they have with modern treaties are very comprehensive. When you look at Treaty No. 8, I think it's three pages. I know the vagueness of some of those commitments contained in the text, and the reliance of the Government of Canada, regardless of who's in power, of sticking to that treaty text. However, a treaty text is not the understanding of the true intent and inherent meaning of treaty, which was to share the land.
We talk about how my friends on the west coast are flourishing in their nations, yet when we look all across Treaty 8 territory, there is struggle. There is a crisis in every aspect of our nations. That's a direct result of the lack of treaty commitment on behalf of the government. It's pretty simple: We have to get back to what that means, what that means for us and what the intent was at the time of signing a treaty. If there's ever any commissioner for treaties 1 to 11, then it has to come from that understanding. It can't follow the policy framework of modern legislation and policy today. We have to go back to that understanding of what was committed to at that time.
We want to be fair to the Government of Canada. One thing that really stands out in my mind is that we understand the need for change in the economy. We understand the need for better systems. We know that first-hand. We want to be part of it and to be part of the solutions, yet when things happen like Bill C-5 being passed in six weeks, first nations were an afterthought. That has to change.