Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
There are some really interesting topics and I'm glad I'm getting the floor halfway through rather than at the beginning.
Mr. Genuis brought forward an interesting argument regarding a couple of areas of government policy where the Government of Canada provided a prohibition on doing something. He laid out an argument that indigenous consultation may in fact require that the government consult before it lays out a prohibition or states a position not to do something.
I'll ask each of you in order and maybe run this across the table. In your departmental policy, do you take the position that the duty to consult indigenous groups also applies where the government is going to take a position to not act?
It would seem to me that if an indigenous group wanted to act, a respectful dialogue would require that they also obtain the consent of the Government of Canada in order to act in a way that would be against Government of Canada policy. It has to be a two-way street, but perhaps not.
I'd love the perspective of each of you on whether the duty to consult requires that the Government of Canada relinquish its own veto against project development.
Mr. Hubbard.