Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to rise again in this place. I gave a full presentation earlier in regard to some concerns I have with the bill. The bill represents a political decision by the Prime Minister. By putting in place a ban in this one particular area, it is actually only going to exacerbate the problem in other areas.
I met with first nations elders and chiefs, along with the member of Parliament for Cariboo—Prince George in his riding shortly after the bill was tabled. They were shocked that the government would have tabled legislation without first speaking to them. Since that time I have also met with first nations that want to see economic development areas. They want to see some heavy oil exports run so that their communities can benefit from that resource development.
This is an area where we have to come to grips when we have a Prime Minister who says that he needs to hold consultations and build social licence and at the same time tables legislation that does neither. In fact, it makes many of those first nations that are seeking to develop their own economic resources so they can move to own-source revenue very cynical and skeptical not only of this government, but of government in general.
When I was first elected to Ottawa, one particular politician, who had just retired, gave me some advice. He said to me, “Dan, you may think Ottawa is around 3,000 kilometres away, but to us back home, it's more like 30,000.” That view is felt even more closely when we start going into northern regions of British Columbia, where the actual communities themselves see this as an excellent way to develop their own own-source revenue, to train, to bring in new expansions for jobs.
When I meet with many of the first nations leaders in my riding, the number one priority they have is for their children to learn skills. Instead, rather than taking advantage of these kinds of things, we have a Liberal government that seems intent on running counter to that. We have to figure out how we are going to deal with that, because there are communities that may not like resource extraction, whether they be first nations or otherwise, but we cannot allow just a few to make decisions on behalf of others in these rural and remote areas.
I look forward to questions and further debate on this issue in this place.