I believe it's important to recognize that it would be very useful, to some extent maybe through this standing committee, to do a bit of a comparative analysis of the land claims agreements and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. For the purposes of energy projects and the focus of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, I think it would be very useful to explore even further the real potential for indigenous-driven activities in relation to energy resources, as was discussed by Professor Poelzer, and to do so in a comparative analysis.
The opportunities for the Alaska native corporations created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act as well as for the economic development corporations created by the comprehensive land claims agreements across the Canadian Arctic offer some real potential, because, as I noted in my presentation, in the circumpolar declaration on resource development, from the indigenous perspective, and specifically from the Inuit perspective, there is a very real attempt to balance the kind of development that can proceed under indigenous development and in terms of energy resources, both renewable and, significantly, non-renewable.
This is an area that would afford some constructive and comparative analysis, to the benefit of Inuit and other indigenous peoples.