When we received the letter from the PMO, it raised many alarms. First of all, the letter was sent to our organization. It was not sent to all of the chiefs; it was sent just to our organization. That was very concerning as we know that the nations are the rights holders, and they were very concerned that this letter was shared with the AFN and other PTOs such as the Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta. We relayed the information immediately. It really set the course for the rest of the discussions around Bill C-5.
We feel like we've been pushed to the side, and the chiefs have really dug their heels in when it comes to this bill. It's a very concerning bill. It's very open-ended. Our rights are mentioned, but they're not reinforced.
There have been projects in the past that have been deemed national interest projects. Those national interest projects, like BC Hydro, have been a severe detriment to our communities, and they totally bypassed the rights of our people. When we see legislation like this that removes a lot of the legislation in the past or bypasses the legislation in the past that set these protections in place, we are very concerned.
We are here for treaty issues, but we understand that this is much bigger than a treaty issue. We understand that the government would like to move in a particular direction. They use the term “economic reconciliation”. As first nations people, we have to understand that when we talk about reconciliation, there is no such word in our vocabulary when it comes to what the federal government pushes forward. How can we reconcile something that was never there in the first place? It's really a play on words. We have an issue with the word “reconciliation”. How do we move forward from this? We really need to sit down with the Prime Minister and the ministers. We need them to understand our issues.
Right now, at home, there are many treaty chiefs who are waiting to see the outcome of this legislation. How are we going to react, and how are we going to move forward with the federal government in these projects and industry? I'd say the trust isn't there. That's why we're asking for certain amendments to be made to this bill. We simply cannot trust the people who are introducing this bill. We've seen it time and time again where our people have been pushed aside. We need to see some substantive amendments to this bill for us to support it in a way that our nations can grow alongside Canada. It's a very troubling issue right now that we're facing, and we're looking for rectification of our issues.
Thank you.