 My name is Josie Osborne and I am the Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation and I have the pleasure of being your emcee this afternoon. It's incredibly wonderful to be here today on the territory of the Clicklight Tonight people. And I am so pleased to be joining Premier David Ebe, Chief Judy Deseret, and councillors from the Blueberry River First Nations, as well as my colleagues, Murray Rankin, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Nathan Cullen, the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Bruce Ralston, the Minister of Forests, and George Heyman, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. We're also joined here today by Iswan Ismail, the President and CEO of Petronas Energy Canada. And I really want to just pass on a big welcome to everybody and thank you for joining us here today. Just before we get going with our program today, I would like to invite Premier Ebe and Chief Deseret up to sign a commemorative document marking the significance of what's taking place today. So allow us to pause for a brief moment while we do this and then we'll get back to the program. It seems so simple, one sheet of paper, but it means so much. And again, we're just so pleased that you could be here with us today to celebrate this. I'd like to start off our program today by inviting our Premier David Ebe to make some remarks. Thank you very much, Minister Rosborn. I'll begin by recognizing we're on the territory of the Clay-Clay-Tinay First Nation. I am really thrilled to be joined here by obviously Chief Desheret and Council members who are here from Blueberry. Thank you, Minister Rosborn. Also joined by Minister Rankin, Minister Cullen, Minister Ralston and Minister Heyman. And I'd like to also recognize a couple of other people in the crowd. Laurie Halls, Deputy Minister, and her team, Tom McCarthy, negotiator and his team from the Public Service of British Columbia, and Megan Giltrow, Council for Blueberry, and her legal team, which may be mostly Megan, and everyone who had a hand in the incredibly hard work around the table to make today a reality. And everybody who came before them to make this possible. Reconciliation is an all-of-government priority for us, and so I'm really thrilled to have my cabinet colleagues here. We are all here, everybody, in this room to bear witness to this historic day for the people of Blueberry River First Nations, for the province of British Columbia, and for all of us who believe that the path to reconciliation is through negotiation and not through litigation. In June of 2021, the BC Supreme Court found that the government had breached Treaty 8 as Blueberry River First Nations could no longer meaningfully exercise their treaty rights as a result of the cumulative impacts of resource development. Government had an option. We could appeal the decision leading to years of battling through the courts and a likely injunction paralyzing activity on the ground for an indeterminate time. It's what governments have done for generations. We decided to take another approach to meaningfully address this challenge head on in partnership. Today's signing ceremony is a testament to what we can accomplish together and a testament to the courage and vision of the Blueberry First Nation, Chief and Council and their predecessors. Full partnership and respect is the only way forward for the Northeast and also for our entire province, not endless court battles and not short-term transactional relationships. The future lies in a partnership approach to land, water and resource stewardship, one that will provide stability and predictability for industry in the region, but also ensures Blueberry River members can meaningfully exercise their treaty 8 rights. I'm honored to be here on this historic day. It represents many years, even decades of hard work by many people. This is a significant milestone, but it's also just the beginning of what we can accomplish together. Let's keep moving forward on reconciliation. Let's move forward together to protect the land, air and water. And let's keep building a stronger British Columbia, one that is based on rights, respect and reconciliation. Thank you. Thank you so much, Premier Ebe. And thank you for all your leadership and for your focus on building bridges that move us all forward. There has been truly monumental work that's been done by a great many people who have helped bring us to where we are today. And I am so pleased to now invite one of those people to speak, Chief Judy DeGerle, who I understand will also be providing us with a greeting. Thank you. Thank you, Minister. What a historic moment. It's been a very emotional day today. Thinking back to when this case first started and following it as a member and a youth at the time, and a parent with small children and now a grandparent. I have never dreamed to see this moment. I remember watching or listening to a story from my grandmother, years before the case, couple years before the case had actually taken off. And she had told the story about living off the land, how it was then, how it was diminishing before her eyes. I want to thank the Claytonay. It's an honor to be in your territory today. Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you to the Friendship Center for allowing us to be here today and for being so welcoming. I would like to take a moment to show the former leadership that has been part of this case since the beginning, their perseverance, their stance, and for being so steadfast, I would say, into listening to our elders, their wisdom, their knowledge, and all of their guidance in this whole case and what it means to our people today. The leaders and the former leadership that we have lost and they're no longer with us have contributed greatly into this historic moment. Without their knowledge and guidance, we wouldn't be here today. I'd like to offer them a moment of silence. It's been a long road, but it means a brighter future for our children, our grandchildren, and the next seven generations. It's a good day. It's been a long battle of protecting our treaty rights to get here. For generations, our people have watched as the land of which our way of life depends be broken, apart piece by piece. And I'm telling you, when I think back to it before the decimation, the amount of cultural and traditional values that was passed on from our elders, our ancestors, how much they love living and carrying on their traditional practices and passing that on to the generations, my grandmother was one of them. And this moment guarantees that they'll be able to do that for years to come. And our future generations will be able to carry that on. Our members were unable to live off the land and practice their way of life as promised in our treaty, the agreement we held with British Columbia at the time. As decades passed and the situation grew worse, we were told we would never be able to make people see the impacts, listen to us and cause a change. But with guidance of our elders, our past and present leaders never wavered. I want to take this time to recognize the former chief and council who stood their ground when no one believed in them. They fought for current and future generations to carry on our traditional values. They stood strong through court, through the court case that lasted seven long years, starting back in 2015 and began the long process of negotiations over the last 18 months to get to where we stand here today. I also want to acknowledge the province who came to the table. Thank you for taking the time to learn and understand our traditional and cultural values as done as our people and what it means to protect and preserve the land in order to preserve our way of life. We have been working with the province to ensure there will be a prosperous future for us all. This agreement will provide a new approach to the responsible resource development, protection of treaty rights, and management of communal effects in our territory. These changes are positive for everyone in the Northeast and in British Columbia. By working together, Blueberry, the province, and industry, we will be providing a pathway to address communal impacts and stability for resource development. We are truly witnessing a historic moment. This agreement also signifies a new approach to working alongside First Nations. For a long time, First Nations were put aside, not engaged with or listened to. Today marks a new direction. First Nations will be participants in all stages of development. Blueberry now has to say every step of the way, starting at the pre-engagement phase. Lastly, I want to thank my people who are watching at home. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and supporting Chief and Council through this whole case. Our people understand the importance of protecting and preserving our ways of life and for what this agreement will mean for them now and into the future. The main principle of our treaty was to ensure Blueberry was able to practice our way of life. For as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow, a new precedent has been set. From this day forward, our cultural and traditional values will come before anything else. Soon, a GKGK, this place where happiness dwells. Thank you so much, Chief, for your beautiful words. I've had the privilege of getting to know you a little bit over the last weeks and months, and it has been so enjoyable. And I've learned so much through this process. We've had the opportunity as two leaders to share our goals and learn about each other and learn about what's important in building a relationship and building a foundation of trust so that we can move forward to strengthen the relationship between Blueberry River First Nations and the province. We began our talks while I was the Minister of Land, Water, and Resource Stewardship. And Chief, I will continue to walk this path with you alongside my colleagues now in my new role as the Minister of Energy Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. There is still so much work to do, balancing the protection of treaty rights and healing the land with responsible economic development and stability and predictability in land decisions. It's an approach that honors our commitments to reconciliation and the declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. And with that, I am pleased to introduce our next speaker, Minister Murray Rankin. Thanks very much, Minister Osborn. I'd like to start by acknowledging, of course, that we are meeting on the traditional territory of the Clay Clay Tenet First Nations. And I want to thank, in particular, my friend Barb, Ward Burkitt, and the Prince George Friendship Center for allowing us to meet here in your vulnerability. We're here because of a lot of people. We're here because of the work of an enlightened leadership on the part of the Blueberry River First Nations. We're here because the Premier, then Attorney General David Ebe, decided a month after the court case was decided in a historic case, hundreds of pages in length, that we would not appeal, that we would sit down and work out a new arrangement with the people whose territories the oil and gas and forestry and other economic activities have taken place. It was June 21, 1899, when the Crown signed Treaty 8. It was in the year 1900, when the Blueberry River First Nations adhered to that historic treaty. In several hundred pages, a judge of the Breesie Supreme Court said that we have not honored that treaty, that we have breached that treaty, a solemn commitment that was made due to the cumulative impact of oil and gas and forestry and other activities. There has never been a case in the history of Canada for such litigation. Never been a case where a breach of treaty was found as a consequence of that cumulative impact. And we had 18 months of extraordinarily hard work by people of goodwill to get us to where we are today. We didn't appeal. We worked it out. And we hear it with an historic agreement that will work to heal the land, that will provide meaningful role for the First Nations affected by oil and gas and forestry activity to work out a planning regime for the future based on protecting the land and healing the land in the future. I think it's an historic day. That's a word that gets thrown around a lot, but I truly believe that it's because of the leadership that you see in front of you that we've achieved this historic event and created a new balance on the land. I commend the leadership of the Blueberry River, First Nations, and leaders in industry and local government, who I see represented here today, who have all put us on a better path, the path to true reconciliation. Thank you. Thank you so much, Minister Rankin. I'm so proud to be doing this work alongside Minister Rankin and the colleagues that have joined me here today. And as Minister Rankin just noted, many people are calling this agreement historic. And it is. It honors a treaty that was signed more than 120 years ago. It ensures protection of treaty rights for a way of life of Blueberry's community and members in a way that we agreed to many years ago. It will lead to healing the land and healing the people. And it ushers in a transformational approach to natural resource development in Blueberry River's territory that opens up collaborative decision making and stability and predictability for industry seeking to continue development activities. And now I would like to introduce our next speaker, who represents some of those interests, Yiswan Ismail, the president and CEO of Petronas Energy Canada. Thank you, Minister Osborne. I would like to start by first recognizing the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, all the ministers present here today. I'm definitely honored to share the stage with you today and appreciate the opportunity to be part of this defining historic moment for the province in advancing ingenious reconciliation. I would also like to acknowledge that we are all gathered today on the land of the traditional unceded territories of the Clay Clay Tenning. Petronas Canada is encouraged that an agreement has been reached between the government of British Columbia and the Blueberry River First Nations. We believe that this is an important step towards reconciliation and the management of cumulative impacts. I've been fortunate to be able to spend time with Chief Dejale and her councillors and also spend time in the community as well as some other Treaty 8 chiefs and councils and I've grown to appreciate the generational view that they hold and the importance of protecting and healing the lands. So we are very much aligned in that regard. Petronas also recognized the opportunity BC and Canada has to be a leading exporter of lower carbon energy products and see the important role we can play in supporting energy security here at home and around the world. As a global energy leader, Petronas, we look to BC's world-class North Monteney Basin and LNG Canada as cornerstones of both our global portfolio and this is important economic and environmental opportunity to deliver the world's lowest emission LNG. These investments by Petronas and other producers and by us and our LNG Canada partners are significant contributors to BC's economy both now and into the future and also are key to how BC and Canada can contribute to address the global energy crisis and global climate challenge as well and at the same time be a leader in economic reconciliation. We understand how conversations around energy can sometimes be polarized between economic development, the climate, the engineers' reconciliation effort against each other. But I truly believe that by working together we can find a balanced path forward, a path where we can be leaders in developing cleaner energy at the same time strengthening the economy and advancing indigenous reconciliation. Time is of essence to move forward with important investments in clean technology and innovation, including the sustainable development of natural gas and LNG so that Canada remains an important player in the global energy transition. I feel with this important agreement in place and a plan to manage cumulative impacts, it is our expectation that now the necessary work can now proceed at pace. For Petronas, this will ensure that the gas we deliver to LNG Canada project is responsibly produced, responsibly produced right here in BC, benefiting Blueberry River First Nations and other First Nations and the entire province and country. I look forward to continuing this journey together with all of you to ensure that BC is a leader in developing responsibly produced clean energy, has a strong and inclusive economy and is advancing indigenous reconciliation as well. And I look forward for all of us, government, Blueberry River First Nations, other First Nations, industry and all stakeholders to work collaboratively to gather to achieve this shared vision. Thank you. Thank you very much, Xi Swan. I really appreciate the words about collaboration and noting your time spent meeting with the chief because it is relationships that build the foundation of the kind of collaboration that we are going to continue to have to see. Throughout my career, I've come to learn a very valuable lesson about the connections between us as human beings and the land and waters around us. The spirit of connection that this agreement breathes life into is about, is what the agreement is about because above all, the pages of this agreement protect Blueberry's treaty rights, their ability to meaningfully exercise rights to fish, hunt, trap. These pages embody the connection between land and a way of life that they have had for thousands of years. As a government over the years, we lost our way and we took the wrong path through the decisions that we made. The courts, the government of today and the respectful work of two incredible teams of people have set us on the right path. It's about honoring a treaty and working together so we can leave the land healthy and productive for future generations. And my wish is that we all leave here today with the belief that we are all treaty people and the certainty of everything that means. My thanks to everybody for joining us today. We are going to open it up for the media and I will invite Premier Ebe back to the podium. Thank you. Okay, we have some media on the line. We have some media on the line, she's testing the microphone. One, two, three, two, three. She's testing the microphone here. Bear with us, everyone. Hello, hello. Testing one, two, three. One, two, three, one, two, three. We have, oh, there we are. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We have members of the media on the phone line as well as some here in person. For those on the phone line, please press star one to enter the queue to ask a question. Media will be limited to one question and one follow-up and we're gonna begin today with Fran Yanor from the Northern Beat. Go ahead, Fran. First of all, congratulations, Chief Desjardins. My question is, Minister Rand, can you reference that this was the first case that was due to a breach of treaty, or sorry, a breach of treaty due to cumulative effects. So I'm wondering, Premier, what do you see? Perhaps you can take it from the top, Fran. Congratulations. Minister Rand, can you mention that this was the first time that there had been a court case, a breach of treaty due to cumulative effects. But clearly, this is precedent setting in a whole bunch of other ways in terms of the future. So, Premier, I'm wondering, how do you see this unfolding, affecting First Nations, government, industry, and the rest of the province? Thanks, Fran, for the question. I think that for me, this agreement creates momentum for future land use planning agreements across the province with indigenous people. Every time that we successfully work with the nation to reach agreement on these very difficult and challenging issues, we show that it can be done. And we also show the benefits, not just for the First Nations, but for the broader community, for the entire province, and certainly for the industry as well that depends on certainty on the land. So in that sense, it sets a very important precedent for British Columbia. It is an example to us about the validation of our approach, and for other numbered treaties, certainly, and other treaties across Canada, the decision out of the BC Supreme Court, I'm sure, has caught the attention of other governments and other First Nations. But it's also, we know the direction, the way the law is going, and we wanna move in a direction of negotiation rather than litigation. So in many ways, this is precedent setting and historic, and I find it incredibly exciting that we're moving in this direction and seeing these results. Follow up, Fran? More practical. This slide. Necessarily, there has been a pause on some of the permitting process during negotiations. Now that, does this agreement, does that sort of open the gate? Are we gonna see a change in terms of activity in the Northeast, for instance? With the decision out of the Supreme Court and the findings of the court, that the provincial government was violating the treaty rights of Blueberry, we were looking at an injunction from the court, restricting all further permitting and all activity on the land base for an indeterminate time until the appeals were all concluded. And we took a different path. We sat down as a government, government-to-government discussions with Blueberry to hammer out an agreement which has reinitiated the permitting process. So with the signing of this agreement, permits are again being issued and activity on the land base is going ahead, but it's going ahead in a different way. It's going ahead around a framework, an interim framework for immediate activity and a commitment to a long-term land use planning process with all stakeholders, with First Nations, with Blueberry, with the community, with industry to make sure that we get it right. So this agreement is as much about addressing that pause that was on the permits that are in place as it is about the long-term land use planning that lies ahead. Thank you. Next question, we're going to go to the phone lines with Binder Sajjan from CTV News. Go ahead, Binder. Binder, we haven't heard your question yet. If you would like to unmute your phone or we're going to work on the levels here. All right. There you are. Thank you, Binder, for joining us. Okay. Thank you very much. So, I was just saying that I heard your emotion as you were speaking about what this agreement means for the nation and its community members. And I'm wondering if you can please put it into perspective for people a little bit more in terms of how these projects have impacted the way of life for people their specific example means that comes to mind. Thank you for that question. So prior to the court case kicking off, we had our traditional territory was severely and almost cleared out from a lot of clear cutting and a lot of impacts from development. At that time, how things were done is we were pushed aside or no one listened to the elders that raised concerns in terms of practice and continuing on our traditional way of life. And one of them was hunting. There was no longer moose in the area from the majority of the massive development that was going on at the time and the amount of change in the land. So a lot of the animals have left the area. So they were not able to continue on hunting, fishing the waters. And those kind of things is what our elders, our people, lived off the land for many, many years. And this really impacted the way they're living. And so when I say that it almost diminished, it was at that point where we had to stop and really open our eyes. And I'm thankful that the elders spoke up, the members spoke up, and the former leadership had took a stand and said, no, we can't go on this way anymore. Things are changing, and it's not going to be good for the future generation. So when I say our cultural and traditional values, the traditional values of our territory is going to be restored. I'm happy to say that we have a plan moving forward and restoring and preserving those ways of life is the direction we're headed now. Thank you, Binder. To a follow-up. I do. And, Premier, this one's for you. I'm wondering, can you talk a little bit about the message that this sends to industry, particularly the oil and gas industry? We heard there that the LNG Canada project is ready to go ahead. There have been concerns about how BC will or could possibly expand LNG and still meet its climate goals. So can you talk about the messaging here? Well, this agreement does have an impact on oil and gas development in the Northeast. It has very specific provisions about the amount of land disturbance that is permitted related to oil and gas. And this is one of the major concerns that caused Blueberry, as I understand it, to bring the court challenge. And it was also a key discussion around the table. Industry is going to have to be more innovative. The oil and gas industry is going to have to find ways to work with less land disturbance. The agreement is not a cap on production. It is a cap on land disturbance. And we expect that. We expect high standards in British Columbia. And it is certainly very good to see Petronas here today at the announcement and agreement across broad industries about the importance of this agreement from a couple of perspectives, predictability, certainty, understanding what's allowed and what's not, and also that they need to innovate and find ways to work on the land in different ways. So it's a very significant agreement in that way. And it's my firm belief that agreements like this, providing certainty, providing that predictability, providing those boundaries, will ensure innovation and partnership that is going to put us in a much better economic position going forward than continued court battles and uncertainty and all the unpredictability that that brings with it. We're going to stay on the line with Derek Penner from the Vancouver Sun. Derek, go ahead. Hello, yes. I hope I can address a question to Chief Gigerlain. Go ahead. I hope it's not too broad. I hope that this isn't too broad. But under the terms of this, what are your expectations now for how industry will take place in your territory? Well, there's no longer business as usual when it comes to doing projected plans within our territory. Pre-engagement is one of the key things to any activity within our territory and relationships. Without those two things, it's going to be very hard to be successful in any planned project. So my encouragement today would be, this is not stopping business. This is building a new way of building relationship and the first step into reconciliation and a lot of meaningful engagement that's going to come out of this, especially with developments that are to take place within our traditional territory. To have a follow-up, Derek. Yeah, this is for Premier Evie, or maybe Minister Rankin. What are the principles that this agreement establishes going to mean for the provinces and relationships with the neighboring First Nations in treaty 8? Thanks very much. Blueberry River First Nations is one of a number of nations within the treaty 8 group of First Nations. I look forward to future announcements and good news in the coming days with other First Nations under treaty 8. Today is about the historic victory of the treaty 8 First Nations in court at BC Supreme Court and the historic work done by them at the table with the government of British Columbia to reach this incredibly important agreement. That concludes our press conference today. Thank you so much for joining us.