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LAC LA BICHE, Alta. — Indigenous supporters of Canada’s oil and gas industry turned out here in force Sunday to make the point that the sector plays a vital role in their lives.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner or a worker or an aboriginal community. We’re all in this together,” Lee Thom, a councillor from Kikino Metis Settlement, told a crowd gathered in a recreation centre in Lac La Biche, Alta.

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Rene Houle from Whitefish Lake First Nation said the energy industry generates spinoff businesses that employ hundreds of people in his community — with the money that’s earned spent at car dealerships, movie theatres and other businesses in neighbouring towns.

The bottom line, he said, is the oil and gas sector helps keep people from becoming burdens on the social-welfare and justice systems.

“We would not have a proper living. We would not have a meaningful way of life, a healthy way of life,” Houle said. “Alone, our First Nation would not be able to generate that.”