We strive to provide opportunities here. Leasing of lands is one of the big steps we have taken. We provide a lot of 99-year leases. So our community members, including the non-natives, certainly having 9,000-plus population.... It started first with the development of mobile homes, then it moved into the higher-end homes, and today homes that many of our non-natives live in are well in excess of $1 million in value.
Today, including the residential and all the commercial, we've got in excess of $1 billion of investment on the Westbank lands. To deal with the non-native population--not only are they welcome and invited to participate--we have representation. We have a five-member board that sits on an advisory council. One of the first laws we passed under self-government was recognition of this advisory council to give it teeth. The non-native citizens of our community elect themselves and have five representatives and they are involved in the direct business of taxation primarily, their moneys. So whether it is the direct impact of their tax dollars--and right now we're collecting somewhere close to $10 million annually--they look at the budgets, they pre-approve the budgets with us, make recommendations on that. They look at how their moneys can be better used for things like street lights, paved roads, or better services overall--maybe it's bylaw enforcement, maybe it's more parkland, any of those issues. They are directly involved with us.
It helps create a united community. The recreation services, for example--some of our tax dollars go into our recreation complex and professional-style ball fields at Pine Stadium, having the gymnasium and new floors put in when they're needed, and maintenance. Being able to offset some of those tax moneys so everyone benefits makes for more of a united community. So things like this we work hard at, and our non-native community are very much part of the support and the growth that's happening here. It's a united front and doing things together.