Natural Resources committee  Thank you for this opportunity. I apologize that I have to join you from London. I have been working on a contract in the Middle East. I was due to travel back tomorrow and jumped at the chance to speak with you, but, unfortunately, I can only do so from London. My name is Rayl

Natural Resources committee  That's great. I am the founder of a social enterprise called Canative Energy. It was founded in 2016 when I was on a trip to Ecuador. I spent three years living in the Latin American country. I was down there for a four-month project and after two months, I absolutely fell in lo

Natural Resources committee  I'll mention the last two points. One is building capabilities. This was mentioned before. This is very important for the community, not only on the technical side and post-secondary further education side, but also just for basic business knowledge. The third point is having a

Natural Resources committee  I think that's a very valid and big question. To reiterate, I have learned three keys in Ecuador. First is diversifying income streams, making sure the community is not wholly dependent on the energy industry and the income gained from that industry. Second is making sure the

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. I think building capacity should account for a significant amount, but you can also not ignore the economic impact and the environmental impact. It's a delicate balance, absolutely, but I often feel.... At least in my experience in Ecuador, building capacity was

Natural Resources committee  Let me be completely transparent. Equador is not a model of best practices for indigenous people and the energy industry. There are still a lot of problems. I cannot think of any country in the world where things are working perfectly and everybody is happy. I think you may have

Natural Resources committee  I'm a testament to having education and scholarships, people in the community pushing you to pursue further education. I am very grateful for that. If I did not have the late Herb Belcourt, who supported me through my journey, I would not be here speaking to you right now. But I

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, everybody. It's a pleasure to appear in front of you again. I'm calling in from Rotorua in New Zealand. I'm here with Chris Karamea Insley, who is one of the advisers to Canative Energy. I requested to appear again before the standing committee just because this is

Natural Resources committee  I'll go first. I don't think there is anything in any of the evidence I've heard, either in my previous session or in what I've heard through listening online to the other sessions. What really drove me to connect with the committee is that I feel that sometimes it's difficult

Natural Resources committee  What you see at conferences focused on a specific subject—as I've seen in New Zealand—is that the first session is with the youth, who are encouraged to present their ideas and to lead the conference, in a way. I think that's really important. For example, in one community I saw

Natural Resources committee  If I may start, first of all, in the spirit of the topic of the committee, I'm going to leave aside the Eagle Spirit pipeline specifics and answer your question directly. Should indigenous peoples be consulted in the creation and development of policy as well as when they put sho

Natural Resources committee  I will just add some context for the individuals who haven't had an opportunity to visit New Zealand. Here the Maori culture is very much integrated into the country. All of the place names are in Maori. There are Maori universities and Maori schools, and this is just a normal

Natural Resources committee  In Ecuador, the indigenous communities have absolutely no rights. They have no mineral rights. They have their settlements and communities, but besides getting government benefit and social insurance, there really is no support for the communities there. It's obviously difficult

Natural Resources committee  Thanks, Kent, for your question. I think it's a very valid one. Again, I'm going to take it out of the province of Alberta and speak with an international voice. I think we've all seen the power of sovereign wealth funds. If you look at what Norway and a number of countries hav

Natural Resources committee  There are a couple of problems. Most definitely education is important—encouraging the youth to travel internationally and to return. It's also important to give them equity stakes—a valued interest. Giving them a seat at the board table, with an equal voice to those of the other