Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think we agree with that. I know just about every community has a volunteer fire department. I know my community does. I know that Chief Alphonse's community does. We have also established a First Nations' Emergency Services Society to deal with preparing and helping our communities address these.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think one of those would be to review the B.C. wildfire agreement as well as the B.C. first nations emergency management services agreement with Indian Affairs, and to figure out in some detail on the operational side how to make it work, from the good ideas here in the MOU to the operational side of it, which means you must engage the communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know about the rest of the country, but in British Columbia, where I'm from, what we want to see is the capability, capacity, and training in each and every one of the 203 communities. That's one capacity. The other capacity is the infrastructure necessary, the equipment and supplies, to be able to respond to the fires effectively.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the very important things that must be considered is at a very strategic level, at the high level. For example, in the Haida decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, dealing with Haida lands, the court said that if the government is even thinking about doing something in the territory of the Haida people, it had better talk to the Haida people.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In this situation, and I will use Chief Joe's community again, there were concerns about that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  But they had their own emergency plan, a very extensive plan. They were operating that plan in accordance with the resources they had. They had evacuation routes for their people, so they were never in any danger. As you can see, the community is an open grasslands area surrounded by timber.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The issue of consent is raised in the Haida decision by the Supreme Court of Canada. It's also raised in the Tsilhqot'in decision. The chair of the Tsilhqot'in Nation or the national government is Chief Joe. It's about the ability to make decisions. The specific wording of free, prior, and informed consent is in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but it doesn't have its origin there.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It has been endemic in our systems for the last 150 years. The Government of Canada, in exercising its jurisdictional head of power under 91(24), could have embarked on a trajectory that's completely different from where we are now. Instead, where we are now is what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded as its truth: cultural genocide.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It was really about decision-making authorities and responses. For example, in this case, if you need support from the Government of Canada from Indigenous and Northern Affairs, this community is required to get some sort of authorization from Emergency Management B.C. We're asking why they don't just listen to the chief and the community council who say that they need their support.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You know, here you have a situation, a wildfire. It's adjacent to your communities and you fear for your own safety. When there's a response to that concern.... As Chief Joe explained earlier, they came in and said that if we didn't move those children, they were going to come in through the ministry of children and families, and they were going to apprehend those kids and move them.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would like to see a paragraph put in the report that says that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that. That's really, I think, an essential point, that municipal leaders, councillors, and mayors are treated with some respect, being as close as they are to the ground, as you put it. I think that is important. It's no disrespect to provincial members of the legislature or federal members of Parliament.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I know that your communities were impacted in a big way as well. Let me put it this way. When I talked to the deputy minister for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation British Columbia during the height of this and following, I said that we needed support in these communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It should be, yes, with the federal and provincial governments and first nations. We didn't have that in the case of the emergency management MOU. I just found out yesterday that there was another agreement, the B.C. wildfire response agreement, with $2 million attached to it.