Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to say a few words in my own official language before I speak to the presentation.
(Witness speaks in Gitxsan language)
First of all, I want to thank the committee for inviting me. It's an honour to be here to make a presentation on behalf of the chiefs, the simgigat, of the Gitxsan Nation.
I would like also to thank Nathan Cullen for taking time in our community a couple of days ago. He took the opportunity to have some dialogue on economic opportunities with a number of people in our community.
I don't want to be disrespectful of the meeting here because I was taught as a young fellow to respect those who invite you to meet on their turf, but it's important for me to be straightforward. I'll try to do that without any disrespect to the committee, and to your House, to Parliament.
What I want to do is to offer some challenges. The challenge we offer from our nation is fairly straightforward; it has to do with the honour of the crown. I know that the crown does its best, and I know the committee or Parliament holds up its role to make sure the crown lives up to expectations.
Part of what I'm going to ask all of us around this table to do is reflect a bit on what this committee is dealing with. I know the topic of energy security is important, and I know that the topic of energy security has to have a long-term focus.
I'm going to ask all of us to step back a bit and think about 50 years or 100 years down the road—the short term. I reflect back on the way this country was formed, the way this country was developed a bit more than 100 years ago. The perspective that we bring to the development of this country goes back several thousand years. It's important for us to sit back a bit and try to focus on what can be done to build a better country for all of us.
From the perspective of our people, from the perspective of the leadership at home, the country has not been kind. A lot of our people live in an impoverished state. We have a lot of suicides because a lot of young people don't see any future for them. Our member of Parliament, Mr. Cullen, knows how suicides affect most of the villages in our area. We look forward to better days, and better days can be planned for all of us if we focus on the long term.
Part of what we're looking at is to have a set of legislative objectives that firmly direct what may happen to this country over the next 50 to 100 years. If you think back to what the Supreme Court of Canada spoke about on the Delgamuukw decision, it said that the crown has to pay some attention to certain things.
The document I'll be circulating deals with title and rights. When you fall back into a position of how the crown can deal with title and rights, it has to be done through the establishment of legislative objectives. Legislative objectives set goals, such as what happened when the national policy was able to create Confederation. When you go back to that process, it's quite easy to see the process that the Fathers of Confederation looked at to create this country we live in today.
So it's important for all of us to think long-term. I know it's mighty difficult at times when you run for political office to think beyond the terms of four years, but I think it's important for us to consider setting up legislative objectives that focus on energy security. And part of that process will enable aboriginal communities to become engaged in the consultation process, which we now can't seem to get engaged in too well.
Part of the weak side of that engagement process has to do with attitudes of people within government, where a defensive approach is taken to having dialogue or the necessary consultation with the aboriginal title holders at the community level.
So it's important, first of all, for the crown to set up legislative objectives. It's also important for the crown to accept its responsibilities in recognizing the title that we have. It's also important for the crown to be ready to have meaningful dialogue with the people at the community level, which it does not do now.
Without that dialogue leading to consultation, projects like the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines project cannot proceed, because no dialogue can seem to take place. There is nothing to focus on. All I'm saying is that the crown has to step up to the plate and look at legislative objectives and really come onside with what the Supreme Court of Canada and the other courts have ruled upon in terms of the title that we do have.
That is the message I wanted to give.
At the outset, the hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan Nation do fully support any development activity that happens. We've been familiar with this particular project for quite a while, and we'll die on the hill to protect our food supply. We rely primarily on salmon that returns into our river systems. We rely on keeping the water clean to protect our food supply, and we will die on the hill to protect that food supply.