Transport committee  I am Kim Beaudin, National Vice-Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

Transport committee  Dear chair and vice-chairs, committee members, and guests, good morning. I'm Kim Beaudin, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples' national vice-chair, and I'm pleased to be speaking to you from the city of Saskatoon. I would first like to acknowledge the traditional Algonquin territ

Transport committee  On the proposed changes, I'd have to get back to you on that one. Some of the information that was provided to me is quite extensive. Because I'm new on the job here, it's actually been quite a learning curve. I'd have to get back to you on that one.

Transport committee  Our organization has not met with any of the ministers at this point. You went back a little with respect to consultation. I want to touch on that as well. I believe that this is certainly a start, but our organization, when it comes to consultation, has a number of provincial

Transport committee  The grassroots people.... We address a number of people who really work from the ground up. When we have meetings, for example, we invite the public out, particularly in our focus on indigenous people in urban areas, and we ensure that their voice is heard. That's important. Back

Transport committee  Yes, it is. It is our understanding. Our organization certainly wants to be actively engaged in the process and in terms of ensuring that our voice is heard from coast to coast, and yes, for sure, what you're saying is the case.

Transport committee  We believe that community engagement is number one. If the federal government shares that information prior to setting any policy issues on the table, that's really important, and at least people will have an opportunity to voice their concerns. Sometimes there will be a lot of p

Transport committee  In 2002, the congress was extensively involved with the Species at Risk Act. Actually, we had representatives on the committee itself. Our voice was at the table on a continual basis. I know they've actually made changes to that, as well. I'm not even sure where it is at this poi

Transport committee  We got thrown off?

Transport committee  I was just saying that when the congress goes about developing policies and when we engage the community, we structure it in such a way that people—we'll call them community experts—get involved in certain policy issues. Certainly, with respect to this issue, these people are imp

Transport committee  Prior to the changes in the act, 99.9% of the waterways were protected, and we certainly would like to go back to that. There are a couple of things that we agree with, which Kyle Vermette of the Métis National Council was talking about, in referring to traditional knowledge an

Transport committee  Yes, that's correct. We were never consulted with respect to what you referred to.

Transport committee  There are a number of government officials who work within the departments. A phone call or an email stating that this is what the federal government is looking at would probably go a long way in terms of informing our constituents and the organization. What we do is pass on that

Transport committee  There is, but what we are finding is that, over the last number of years, it has been watered down quite significantly. Again, some of the concerns.... I'll give you an example from Saskatchewan. When we attend any kind of meetings with government officials, the constituents are

Transport committee  Yes, for sure, I agree with that.