Thank you.

Good afternoon.

[Witness spoke in Cree and provided the following translation:]

Thank you for allowing me to be here today. My name is Tracy Friedel. I'm a Nehiyaw-Métis woman from the Métis people of Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta.

[English]

I am currently the president of the representative governing body for the Lac Ste. Anne Métis. We are descendants of Cree Métis families who have occupied the landscape of west central Alberta since the late 1700s to the early 1800s, including in what today is known as Jasper National Park.

The history of establishing national parks in Canada is complex and controversial, particularly as it concerns the displacement of indigenous peoples, as was described by Barry. These protected areas are praised for their natural beauty and their commitment to conservation, but their creation inevitably came at the expense of indigenous peoples, some of whom lived on these lands since time immemorial.

In overseeing Jasper National Park, the federal government implemented policies that resulted in the forcible removal or displacement of indigenous families and communities from these lands, disrupting traditional ways of life and connection to important places. Forcible removal without compensation and the barring of indigenous peoples from practising their cultural activities within the park's boundaries disrupted communities and livelihoods. It also adversely impacted their cultural practices. The legacies of this displacement are profound and enduring.

In the case of Jasper National Park, since about 2005 there's been increasing recognition of those injustices that are facing the indigenous peoples who were forcibly displaced. The Jasper Indigenous Forum brings park staff, managers and representatives of indigenous groups together with others to work towards returning indigenous presence and culture to the landscape. Under this initiative, the park involves historically connected first nation and Métis communities in park management matters, including recently in fire management initiatives where there has been an expanding effort to undertake prescribed burns. Unfortunately, though, there is a lot to catch up on regarding a century of fire suppression, the impacts of climate change and the wish to meet the expectations of Jasper residents and Canadian and international visitors who desire a certain conception of nature.

We know from our elders that fire was a way to promote ecological diversity and reduce the risk of wildfires. This type of cultural burning links to the idea of fire as medicine and was key to proper management of local ecosystems, something that indigenous peoples were not given due credit for. With indigenous peoples removed from the park, fire suppression became a priority.

The Jasper wildfires demonstrate the compounding of mismanaged landscapes and climate change impacts and reveal the tensions that exist between a focus on recreation, tourism and conservation on the one hand and indigenous reconciliation on the other hand. From here, it's important for Parks Canada to enhance its collaboration with indigenous peoples, including a goal of reintroducing cultural burns as an aspect of park management. In addition to leading to enhanced biodiversity, which is important to such other objectives as caribou recovery, this activity can also be understood as an aspect of addressing the economic effects that forest displacement had on the removal of indigenous peoples from these lands.

In studying these factors, as this committee is doing, Lac Ste. Anne Métis call on Parks Canada to commit to deepening the relationship building that is already under way by ensuring that management arrangements more closely align with indigenous perspectives and aspirations regarding conservation. These efforts are crucial for advancing reconciliation.

Kinana'skomitina'wa'w. Hay hay.

Thank you.