Madam Speaker, I want to ask the member about a decision the government made that I think would very clearly violate the principle of free, prior and informed consent. I heard about it when I joined the foreign affairs committee in the last Parliament visiting Canada's north.
In December of 2016, the government designated all Arctic waters as indefinitely off-limits to future oil and gas licencing. Indigenous communities in the north told us that they found out about this through a phone call 45 minutes before the announcement was made to the public.
Does the government think that it has the same obligation to consult when it introduced these kinds of anti-development policies that hold back the desire of indigenous communities in the north to develop their own resources for their own benefit?