Opening Remarks Michelle Wilsdon April 18, 2024

0:04      Tanse Katia no Teguo Kehua Esqua.

0:08      Michelle Wilson, Natsi Kasun Muskeg Sekochiniya.

0:12      Hello everyone, My name is Michelle Wilson and I am from the Enoch Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory.

0:19      My role with the Canada Energy Regulator is the professional leader for reconciliation and it's an honour to open today's gathering for my home located in the unseated traditional territory of the Quata Peoples on northern Vancouver Island.

0:35      As we gather virtually today, I extend my respect and recognition to each of you who have taken the time to join us, knowing that you have so many other places you could be and important work that you must be doing for your communities.

0:49      It was over a year ago that I travelled to Calgary, to Fort St. John and to Edmonton facilitating dialogue between Metis, First Nations and CER leadership.

1:00      Those meetings were at the beginning of this effort to co-develop a new relationship in respect of regulatory oversight for the Nova Gas Transmission system.

1:10      And in those meetings leaders confirmed that there is a need for some kind of mechanism that enables the CER to work more collaboratively with First Nations and Neti communities so that we can better understand and respect Indigenous rights within our regulatory approach.

1:28      The leaders impressed upon us the importance of addressing cumulative impacts together and they were clear about the need to address systemic racism within the CERs regulatory framework.

1:40      We were told that for the partnership to work, the CER must value Indigenous traditional knowledge equal to and alongside Western science, and that the partnership should include a monitoring system that focuses on the things that are of value to your communities.

1:59      And leaders.

1:59      Were really clear about the need to ensure that this mechanism or this new relationship is properly resourced.

2:06      It has a clear purpose and that it makes a real difference to communities.

2:12      Leaders instructed us to collaborate more closely with the technicians from their communities, recognizing that it is these individuals that possess the specialized expertise and experience that is essential for this work.

2:25      And so today you will be continuing the conversation that we started over a year ago as the technical experts in this field.

2:33      I'm so grateful to all of you who are there to work together to move forward towards workable and actionable ideas that are guided by the insights and direction provided by our collective leadership.

2:46      A final reflection that I would just like to offer is in relation to the United Nations declarations on the rights of Indigenous people, which Indigenous leaders have made clear is vital context to this work.

2:58      As you likely know, on June 21st of last year [2023], Canada released the United Nations Declaration Act Action Plan.

3:07      The Action Plan includes 181 measures that the Government of Canada promised to undertake to implement the Declaration and to make progress towards reconciliation with First Nations, maintain the new at peoples.

3:21      Well, just as Canada is leading the overall implementation of the Action Plan, other departments and agencies are also accountable for advancing specific measures.

3:32      And what I would draw your attention to is Action Plan Measure 34, which the CER co-developed alongside Natural Resources Canada and the Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.

3:46      What APM 34 essentially says is that we imagine a future where the CER regulates alongside and in cooperation with Indigenous governing bodies or their regulatory institutions.

4:01      And we know that it will take time for First Nations and Metis communities to build those regulatory authorities, and that it will take time for Canadian First Nation, Metis, and Inuit governments to sort out how we can all share jurisdiction.

4:16      When we developed the Action Plan measure, we understood the long term and generational nature of the shared vision, and so we included some tangible steps that we can take to get to get us closer to realizing that vision.

4:29      In the meantime, for one, the CER will develop new regulations that provide authority for the Minister of NRCan to enter into arrangements with Indigenous nations or governments so that they can exercise specific powers, duties and functions under the CER Act.

4:48      We will also amend existing regulations and guidelines that will strengthen measures to prevent and address impacts to Indigenous rights and interests and that also aimed to incorporate Indigenous traditional knowledge within CER decisions.

5:03      And finally, the CER committed to building on the strengths of the two existing Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committees to develop a national and systemic model for Indigenous people's involvement in compliance and oversight of major CER regulated projects.

5:20      We don't yet know what a systemic model will look like, but we believe that co-developing a collaborative oversight mechanism for NGTL is a significant step in the right direction.

5:32      Together, the Indigenous oversight bodies for the NGTL system, the Line 3 and the TMX pipelines will correspond to Indigenous oversight of approximately 37% of the pipelines that we regulate in Canada.

5:45      And that's a start.

5:48      I believe that if we are to realize that future where the CER regulates alongside and in cooperation with Indigenous regulatory authorities, there's no single giant step that will get us there.

5:59      But what will get us?

6:00      There are a lot of little steps just like the step that you are taking today together to further define the governance, the structure and the approach for a collaborative mechanism of oversight for the NGTL system.

6:13      I wish you well in these discussions and I look forward to hearing the results.

6:17      Hi. Hi.