Natural Resources committee  Thank you. What big questions those are. I think the ILO has been successful, or has been a tool, then, for the Sami Parliament in establishing consultations, both on this Finnmark Act process in the Norwegian Parliament [Technical difficulty—Editor] 2003 [Technical difficulty—E

Natural Resources committee  I think it has been beneficial for the Sami Parliament, and the Sami Parliament wants to continue this co-operation. There is now a proposal in the Norwegian Parliament for a law on consultation or on including consultations in the Sami law. The Sami Parliament wants to continue

Natural Resources committee  Norway was the first country to ratify ILO C169. It really became important for decisions or the process related to ownership or use of land and water in the northern parts of Norway. It became very important for development of the Finnmark Act, which was decided by the Parliamen

Natural Resources committee  My guess would be five years, and some of them have been going on for much longer, because it's a challenge to get funding for them. It might start out as a local project. We have a big wind park outside Tromsø that is now under construction. It's about three billion Norwegian kr

Natural Resources committee  There have been some that have been started by some of these power companies owned by municipalities. The state is also involved in some large projects via their own Statkraft. This one outside Tromsø is an example of private ownership. There's a mixture, when it comes to wind pa

Natural Resources committee  The reason has been, to some extent, public protests, but it's mostly financial, I think, and also that they've found that the area isn't that good for production. There are also delays related to the new technology we can produce. We can have bigger windmills and we may then cha

Natural Resources committee  I think I would agree. The Sami Parliament in Norway is stronger. It has more resources than they do in Sweden and Finland. Norway is also the only one of those that has signed ILO C169 and developed tools such as consultation. There are some processes and landmarks in Norway tha

Natural Resources committee  The state, or the Norwegian national parliament, decides the budget for the Sami Parliament each year. It does not give but transfers money to the Sami Parliament as part of the state's budget. That's how it's done. It's part of its large budget. There is some sort of consultatio

Natural Resources committee  The Sami Parliament does not have the power to veto projects.

Natural Resources committee  In some cases, the state and the Sami Parliament don't agree after this exchange of opinions, and what's been troubling for the Sami Parliament is the processes, during which they feel that their arguments haven't been heard and which they feel the state has done simply because t

Natural Resources committee  It's mainly decided on as a transfer to the Sami Parliament, and it's related to the different tasks they have. They may get new tasks and then they get more money. For example, if they are working on language issues, they probably get more money to deal with those, and to deal w

Natural Resources committee  I would say it took at least five years for some of these wind projects, based on the information that we have, but the government has also tried to set more limits on these processes, because some of these permits have been given, and then construction hasn't started, and then t

Natural Resources committee  The main difference with Canada is that the Sami people don't own their land in Sami. We don't have the types of agreements you have. That's one reason. When it comes to energy, energy has been seen as a national resource, and the income and so on have been given or transferred

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for the invitation to take part in this meeting. I'm very honoured by it. What I'm going to talk about is based on research projects here at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway. They are carried out through the co-operation of researchers in Norway, Sweden,

Natural Resources committee  I'm six hours ahead of you, so it's 9:30.