Fisheries committee  First you have to own it. You have to be able to afford to buy the quota, so yes, I agree. I also think that in the past we went through phases where some of that was in place. I remember when my dad was a commercial fisherman, one of the best in our community for years. When he had a licence, he was able to go out and get the salmon, halibut, and different species under one licence.

Fisheries committee  We're not in a treaty process, and I wouldn't go into a treaty process where we go in to negotiate to give our land and our rights away. I would look at different proposed projects that come into our traditional territory and work with them for benefits, jobs, and everything we want.

Fisheries committee  I think it's a combination of things, us sitting down face to face. It's not only information sharing. It's getting into the real information where we can make decisions going forward. It's not me meeting with the minister for 10 minutes and simply sharing information. It has to be in-depth.

Fisheries committee  I think that's a fine line and you have to balance a whole bunch of things. You listen to the court cases that have come out recently. Tsilhqot'in is one I'll point to, and it says you should be able to make a decent living where you live. I think that's a good guideline if you're not harming the environment.

Fisheries committee  What I'd point to is a recent article that just came out about Alaska. The past year they had 225 million salmon return. In my brief that I have here, and I'll give it to members who want it, one of the proposals we've been looking at for years is ocean ranching. It's so successful right next door to us in Alaska, and the federal government to date has not agreed to look at it.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Fairly simply they take native salmon, in this case chum salmon native to the area, the rivers and creeks where they originally spawned, and they take the eggs and implant them into every river and creek that they want those fish to return to. When the salmon get to a certain stage, they go out to the ocean, and they come back to those same rivers and streams when they return to their systems.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I think you have to look at every proposed project individually. Our people would not agree with something that we thought would harm our environment. That's the last thing we want to do. We want it there for generations to come.

Fisheries committee  I don't know if it's the final say, but yes, I think in conjunction with experts that can give us good advice.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I am not aware of the particulars. I am aware of some of the conservation areas they have in place already. One of our main fishing places was around Dundas Island. We are completely shut out of that area now, and it's filled with sport fishermen. They are allowed to go and fish in an area where we can't for commercial purposes.

Fisheries committee  No.

Fisheries committee  I don't know if you've read the papers lately. I've been very reluctant in the past to go to the media on internal issues with our band. You get tired of the noisy people and the naysayers coming into your community and getting all the press. I spoke out about what we negotiated with that PNW LNG proposal on the coast that was over $2 billion dollars in benefits over the 40-year life of that project.