Thank you so much to all of you. This is such powerful and important testimony, and I hope many Canadians will have the opportunity to hear what you've said today and to hear all of you in the future. One of my frustrations is with the politicians who talk about listening to indigenous people but then only want to reflect those indigenous people whose voices agree exactly with them on everything. It's very important that you, as indigenous leaders, have this opportunity to speak for yourself and your experience, and that we listen.
I just want to bring greetings and share the regrets of our shadow minister for natural resources, Shannon Stubbs, who I know is a great fan of all of you. She wishes she could be here today. I have the honour of subbing for her.
I wanted to ask about the requirement to consult when governments bring in anti-energy, anti-development policies. We recently had public servants before the committee who told us clearly that their understanding is that there is a legal duty to consult on any decision that impacts indigenous communities. In this context, that includes not only decisions to develop a resource but also decisions to impose restrictions on the development of the resource. In other words, when you have the imposition of a policy for a tanker exclusion zone that prohibits the export of natural resources off the northern coast of B.C., there is a duty to consult with indigenous peoples before imposing that policy. Prior to the imposition of the off-shore drilling ban in the Arctic, there was a legal duty to consult.
What we also heard at that time from those public servants was that they had no information about any consultation having taken place with any indigenous communities before the imposition of those policies.
Let's start, in particular, with the representatives of the Indian Resource Council. Do you agree there is a duty to consult when anti-energy, anti-development policies are imposed? Was there any meaningful consultation undertaken by the government in these areas? What kind of recourse do you have if it is the case that the government is running roughshod over your rights and your opportunities?