Thank you.
I haven't had a chance to consult with a lot of folks in B.C., other than a client who says that while they have resources and would like to do partnering and get economic development going in their community, what it comes down to is that there's been a lot of economic progress made in the past 100 or more years where indigenous peoples have been excluded from that.
The document that I referred to, the 1910 “Memorial to Sir Wilfrid Laurier”, speaks very eloquently about that. They said that they were to be sharing the resources and waiting to get ahead, and all these promises had been made. Here we're talking about the TPP, and there's virtually no consultation with indigenous peoples, as far as I'm aware. I did have a cursory look last year at some of the measures, the new measures that could be implemented for indigenous peoples. I know there is a proposal for an energy corridor. That's what I suggest; perhaps that could be a special measure by recognizing it as a special reserve and making it federal land that's jointly operated by not just one band but many bands, as a joint band. There are possibilities that exist, but those conversations haven't even been held, as far as I'm aware.
The other thing is creating some sort of advantage for indigenous peoples. That's what's necessary here, because for the past 200 years there have not been those advantages. In order to level the playing field and close the economic gap, we need to make it more possible for foreign national corporations to make partnerships with indigenous groups that enhance the economy and the resources that are available to indigenous groups, and to take a sharing in that. That's from my perspective. I think that's what our ancestors envisaged being able to happen, and we need to take those special measures to make it happen here.