Haawa, Taylor.

There are two main pieces to follow from this. One is an internal piece of work. The nation does need to work together and look internally at how we would like to evolve from the status quo when it comes to the Indian Act and everything that's rolled up within that. There is a fundamental difference between status band members recognized under the Indian Act in our communities versus Haida citizens recognized under our constitution. How do we close that gap to make sure that all Haida citizens are being supported with the programs and services that they deserve under our system, and how do we work together with governments to achieve that?

Second, you've seen that our framework agreement, again, is a historic step by Canada to agree to negotiate and litigate at the same time as we try to resolve issues efficiently and responsibly in an orderly way together. You've seen that we've made progress with British Columbia with the “Rising Tide” Haida Title Lands Agreement. Originally, we started that process together as a tripartite negotiation, and we moved bilaterally with the province and completed that agreement.

Our hope is to continue to resolve title to the land, as it is a matter before the courts, and come to some resolution when it comes to title recognition throughout the land, similar to what we've done with B.C., but also to resolve it in the litigation. We want to show Canadians and everybody that we can achieve this outside of court and create more of an orderly process of transition and more certainty. As we've seen in the courts, we have a very strong case. We're submitting evidence. A title declaration, though, doesn't.... We're still sent back to the table to negotiate and figure out the terms of what this is going to look like and how it is going to impact everybody. We would like to just continue working on that now and not wait for the courts to dictate that.

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