As a British Columbian, I understand the importance of working with indigenous nations to find a way to work together, and consultation is very important. There is a duty to consult, and we all agree with that. However, I think this has the potential to be very confusing and cause uncertainty in the marine environment.
The entire area is now referred to as the Salish Sea. It is unclear to me what it means when this amendment says, “in waters under the governance of an Indigenous government”. There would be, in many cases, claims or overlapping claims, or perhaps.... This would, I think, cause more uncertainty than anything else that has been contemplated regarding anchorages, and that would not bring about supply chain reliability and efficiency.
I think everyone on this committee has a commitment to indigenous reconciliation and consultation, but this, I think, is too broad and would cause too much uncertainty in the way it is written.