I think we need more indigenous participation and dialogue and involvement in natural resource development. As you know, the northern gateway project guaranteed two billion dollars' worth of benefits for 31 out of the 40 communities along the corridor. It also included a guarantee that the funding partners—there were nine producers and Enbridge as an operator—would hire a CEO from one of the first nations from the communities in B.C. That was real participation that meant something. That meant that the industry itself and the producers themselves were willing to do what it took in order to get full participation from first nations to develop the project.
It's like when we organized the National Coalition of Chiefs so that the core members went to the funding partners after the cancellation and said, “Can we work toward getting the northern gateway project back?” The funding partners, who wrote off $630 million in development costs, including regulatory costs, said that northern gateway was done, but they would support an indigenous-led pipeline initiative. That was important. It got us, to a certain extent, to a level at which we thought, and a lot of first nations agree to this day, that we can develop our own projects.
That's what we want to do. I think one way to get the regulatory process in place is to have full participation from first nations. You won't have the consultation problem. You won't have the rights and title issues that go up to the Supreme Court. You will have indigenous people at the table, because they will lead these projects. That's what we're working toward getting, not just leading the projects but owning the natural resource itself.