Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  I think it's about fair and equal partnerships. I think that would be the starting point. First nations are not anti-business or anti-development; they're pro successful partnerships, and I think you're seeing examples of where those occur. There are too many examples in the Ring of Fire.

Finance committee  It's also more about ongoing engagement, about developing not only the relationship on that particular location. It's also about the subsidiary business. It could be a percentage share in the actual operation itself. What's the ongoing engagement? I remember talking to one of the resource extraction companies about their celebration of the number of wells they had developed in particular first nations to extract oil.

Finance committee  They weren't doing it prior to that. I think we need better consultation on accommodation policies and engagement. We have to work together on that, though.

Finance committee  Certainly in the past 10 years.... I think they have a long way to go to get to that $650 billion potential that Canada has.

Finance committee  Absolutely. It's the implementation of those existing treaties, because there are some challenges with treaties as they've been signed, as they've been implemented, and ongoing comprehensive claims reform to sign new treaties is absolutely essential. That was, in part, the meeting we had on January 11 with the Prime Minister, to follow up on the crown-first nations gathering from the year before.

Finance committee  One minute. Thank you. I'll summarize that solution in one minute. If Canada truly wants to benefit from the projected $650 billion in new resource-based projects, then make sure, either through tax breaks or by recognizing treaty rights and treaty jurisdictions, that every first nations community has the opportunity to share in that prosperity.

Finance committee  Thank you very much to the committee for inviting us here to make the presentation. I would also like to acknowledge that we are on unceded Algonquin territory, and we thank them for allowing us to gather here. We're very pleased to make a brief presentation and provide our recommendations to your study on income inequality and the relationship to taxation.