In terms of consultation, at least for my region, I think it's one thing to go to our head office at the AFN and speak to the national chief, or even me. The problem is getting down to the grassroots people and talking about how this law would infringe those practitioners, as stated by Vice-Chief Bear. It's about how this would affect our hunters and trappers, those people who utilize hunting for part of their food, for social and ceremonial purposes and for, really, part of their being from generation to generation. I think more needs to be done.
Most of my attention on things like this is drawn towards looking at policing. We do have a task force on policing that's looking at going from program funding to essential services funding, which is very much needed for our first nations policing, especially with our tripartite agreements for our own police forces.
In terms of making sure it is safe for women, I really believe that perhaps this issue is not going to be an easy one to deal with, especially with regard to homes where there is violence. This is why at the AFN we're calling for more preventative measures and more resources so prevention can occur. It could be long guns. It could be handguns. It could be any sort of violence within the home. I think this speaks to the lack of resources within first nations communities to make sure women are safe and children are safe as more of a preventative measure.
I think it's really something that needs to be looked at within the home. Dealing with those issues means more preventative measures, and one of the things we are recommending to the committee is more resources.