[Witness speaks in Cree]
I'd like to acknowledge that we are on unceded Algonquin territory and also say hello to elected chiefs, elders, and elected representatives of Canada, members of Parliament.
We are here today to tell you that Aboriginal Equity Partners was denied the honour and duty of the crown to be consulted and to exercise its inescapable economic rights under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. This consultation must take place before this bill can be implemented.
The Aboriginal Equity Partners' main role was to protect our traditional way of life and the environment, both along the northern gateway pipeline corridor and in marine operations, while also ensuring our people and communities benefited from this long-term economic opportunity.
We were in the process of negotiating a third ownership of this project and looking at it to be majority-owned by the 31 Aboriginal Equity Partners, and it would be the first Canadian-owned megaproject to be owned, managed, and operated by indigenous people. We were denied that right.
In November of 2016, the Prime Minister announced, without any consultation with any of our communities, the dismissal of the application for northern gateway, after it had already been approved two and a half years earlier. We were profoundly shocked and disappointed.
Some communities invested their own money in businesses to support construction. Individuals went back to school to train for jobs on the project that would allow them to stay in their own communities. Many leaders who invested time to make the project better had their efforts wasted, including my colleague steward, the late Grand Chief Elmer Derrick, who passed away this September.
Likewise, the AEP communities were never consulted on the tanker moratorium. In a September 7, 2016, meeting with Minister Garneau, and again in a September 30, 2017, letter to him, the stewards carried the assertions from the AEP communities that their economic rights under section 35 had been negatively affected by a tanker moratorium. As you know, many of our indigenous communities suffer from a high rate of poverty and its associated ills.
We carried the message that the communities needed to be consulted, as they were the inherent rights bearers, and that we stewards had no authority to represent them on their rights. We offered to help the minister to facilitate meeting communities, either individually or collectively. We never received a response to our verbal or written request to be consulted. We only received a letter notifying us that the federal government had decided to move ahead with the moratorium that would kill all our work and opportunities.
We must be consulted before this bill is implemented.