Transcript
(Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada) Today is a very big day for both reconciliation, and environmental protection in Canada. Today we celebrate Canada's first ever Reconciliation Framework Agreement for bioregional oceans management and protection which involves 14 First Nations along the Pacific coast. This is an important commitment to regional partnership in the task of ocean management.
(Dallas Smith, Board President, Nanwakolas Council) It's amazing that we've been able to keep the continuity that we've had in the Great Bear Rainforest and carry that into other rooms. The nations that are working together on this agreement have been working together for the better part of a decade on land and resource management issues and it's important to bring other coastal jurisdictional issues into it now.
(Patrick Kelly, Coastal First Nations) The First Nations on the coast have been the custodians of their territories', both the marine environment and the land environments for, really, 15,000 years – that's 500 generations, and so they have inherited the responsibilities from the custodians from the past generations, they carry those traditions on today. And they want to make sure that the land, the air, the water, the lifestyles, their well-being Is taken care of, not only for today, but future generations as well.
(Chief Marilyn Slett, Heiltsuk First Nation, President Coastal First Nations) This agreement gives Canada the historic opportunity to develop true nation-to-nation approach on oceans protection with all the First Nations and Peoples who have called these coasts and marine territories their home for millennia. Our elders tell us that if we take care of the ocean the ocean will take care of us.