Thank you, Mr. Julian.
The perception in our communities is that the standards have been lowered for environmental protection, the safeguards for inland fisheries, and the resources that our peoples continue to rely on. As I said, our peoples—for the most part unemployed, with no jobs, no opportunities—continually rely on the lands and the seas and the waters to feed their families. In a traditional economy, people are out there in the summertime making salmon and other fish ready for storage for the winter to feed their families.
In many cases, the only source of income may be seasonal work, or it may be social assistance. That's not very secure. So when you're undermining those rights and comparing the well-being of fisheries, for example, with the economic well-being associated with pipelines, you're making some trade-offs.
Unfortunately, the consequence is negative for our communities. It has been, and we have seen that. We were promised jobs, business opportunities, and all sorts of things. Yesterday one of the tribes in the territory where I come from announced that they were stepping back from a $450-million mine expansion because all of the promises that were being made simply dissipated.
These projects are being sold as creating opportunities, creating jobs, creating businesses, but they're not forthcoming. Even with the existing projects that are there and past projects with which there have been tremendous difficulties, we live with the consequences of those still.