Thank you for the question, Mr. Cannings.
You have some of the jagged outcomes of colonization and the current administrative structures there, but I'm not going to critique that.
What I'm going to say is that British Columbians are slowly figuring it out. You have eight million cubic metres of tenure held by indigenous groups in B.C. There are a plethora of different types of legal provincial agreements under which these indigenous groups hold the forest management rights for tenure. In each of those cases, even though there are things on paper, there are things off paper that these indigenous groups, together with the regional forest managers, do to learn from each other, because there's a human dimension to it. There's what's on paper, but then there's what is happening when you get regional forest managers and indigenous leaders and elders sitting down and negotiating over time.
That has to be strengthened, sir, and I think you point to the fact that there has to be a strengthened role for indigenous knowledges, histories and past experiences with insect forcing and climate changes that have happened in the past. That has to be brought into the management mix. Is the response going to be the same? Of course not, because the landscape has changed. People have changed. Community patterns have changed, so that's where you need that adaptive and syncretic approach, and you just need that basic respect.
I think we have that now in Canada. Even despite some of the more dramatic headlines that we have in terms of indigenous and non-indigenous relations, when you actually look at it and see what's happening in the business world and on the ground between common people, there's a reflection that no one's going anywhere here in Canada. We just have to get together, roll up our sleeves and figure this out.
You, the Parliament of Canada, have a very special role, gentlemen and gentleladies. You have to set aside some resources. You have to let that federal plow bring in the provincial energy, the business energy and the energy from our regions, and let them tackle not only this issue, but the other issues in the forest sector and the natural resource sector. That's hopefully the approach that the committee will take and that we can get the civil service and governments to move into.