Yes. That is the simple answer.
Me and other colleagues supported ACFN and MCFN, which are sitting here today, on a multi-year research program, and they've developed indigenous-use surface water and sediment water-quality guidelines that consider traditional land uses, medicinal plant use and consumption of water from any water body in the Athabasca region. In my work with the Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, we're developing integrated environmental human health risk assessment methods and establishing guidelines for medicinal foods.
These three communities together are very advanced in how they've used science and braided it with their knowledge and informed science to move it forward in the region through interactions with consultants like me and with governments and industry. That's why I said that it's shocking to me that a risk assessment like this could happen in the region. It doesn't need to going forward. The methods are established. We know how to do collaborative, community-led research that these communities can lead.
I was a bit taken aback by the minister's letter that said they had already hired a consultant. A few lines down, it says that they've selected a consultant from the pool of government consultants. That could still be done collaboratively if you had scientists who have worked with indigenous communities and know how to integrate traditional knowledge into western science methods, but not having any information on that I thought was an interesting approach given why we're here today.