I think in more ways than one.... To try to answer that question, it's more ways striking and sad to hear the fact that former MP Brian Jean, who represented our area, came out and made those comments after he stepped down as an MP. He should have mentioned that while he was a member of Parliament, because of the fact that he knew the rapid growth in our area is so substantial that the first nations are having a hard time trying to deal with the issues at hand.
We continue to rapidly deal with application after application after application. We have a small staff of six employees who have to deal with the number of applications that come in.
The first nations' view is that continuous development in the area will also have a drastic impact on the environmental component of it. I'm not only saying that, but it makes it a lot harder when impact benefit agreements and economic development continue to be a burden.
Everybody across Canada thinks that the first nations are benefiting from the oil sands development in this region. We have to argue, and we have to lobby hard with industry in order to obtain contracts in this region. In more ways than one, the first nations, with regard to our traditional territories, are being overlooked with respect to how economic prosperity would be moved forward.
It's hard dealing with the issues we have, and governments at both levels are not making it any easier for first nations to enter into these IBAs with industry, because industry continues to lobby governments, saying why should they have to pay both parties with regard to an impact benefit agreement.
In more ways than one, Canada and Alberta alone are depleting a non-renewable resource from the oil sector, and are not putting a penalty of a tax bracket on the oil and gas industry where Canada would benefit from it.