Fisheries committee  I think I am of the mind that we should be consulted in a meaningful fashion when decisions like that are made. I know I did meet with Minister Garneau. Somebody said we met 50 times or something over the previous two years, but only two of those meetings were on the tanker moratorium.

Fisheries committee  I support our looking after the environment, looking at any project that comes along, whether it's oil or gas, and making a decision based on science and fact. I think the opportunity for us in northern B.C. for a pipeline for oil is real. The reason I say that is that when I sat in this chair I was with Eagle Spirit Energy, where we went from Alberta to my community on the coast, and got all those bands on board for that energy corridor.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I thank the committee for allowing me to speak before it here today. I think it's important that I travelled all the way from northwestern B.C. to Ottawa, because I feel that we're left out on the northwest coast of B.C. I say that because a lot of policies and regulations have been put in place without our input.

Transport committee  It depends on what that meeting was for. Again, on the tanker ban, all I recall are two meetings.

Transport committee  There were meetings on different issues.

Transport committee  I can speak for my community that the last time I was the chief, in 2007-08, I signed a land use plan with the province, but nothing like this was on the table at that time. The Great Bear Rainforest is something that came after I was elected the last time, and they were working on it before I was elected this time.

Transport committee  No. It never got that detailed.

Transport committee  I'd just like to respond to the last comment made by the member.

Transport committee  Sure.

Transport committee  I think you're addressing that to me on the LNG.

Transport committee  It would all depend, of course, on the type of oil. We live in a very sensitive environment. It depends on what you put your emphasis on. If you had a world-class model, your emphasis would be on prevention, where you'd identify those certain sensitive areas and have equipment predisposed and people trained.

Transport committee  I think I would start by saying I met with the minister again this morning, and I've met with him, Minister Garneau, a couple of times just on the tanker moratorium, talking about persistent oil and what that means. I don't know what would be allowed. What does that define? If LNG is allowed, that's good.

Transport committee  It depends on how you define “consultation”, I guess. A quick meeting is not consultation. Right after I was elected, the minister came to Prince Rupert and met with a representative from my council. I wasn't able to make that meeting. Again, there were meetings on LNG and on OPP, so they weren't all on the tanker moratorium.

Transport committee  Before I was elected mayor or chief in my community, I was working with Eagle Spirit Energy, which is going to be up next. I try to make sure that I distinguish my role when I speak, because I might be in conflict. However, what we were doing was working on a proposed project from Alberta to the coast.

Transport committee  There are other proposed projects and entities that are coming to us now, but I'll go back to the LNG one that would have brought us $2 billion in benefits over the 40-year lifetime of the project, in just my community alone. We negotiated that in the agreement. When you talk about consultation, the government seems to download the duty to the industry, and they had a lot of difficulty doing that with us.