Here at the University of Manitoba one of the pillars of our future development is related to the education and dialogue with our remote and aboriginal communities.
We know that nutritional security is an issue. We know that our communities of the north are not in control or they have limited knowledge of the food value chain upon which they rely. And there is an opportunity for agriculture to contribute in a positive way to the nutrition of those communities and to the health of those communities.
It is my understanding that this has to start with good dialogue and focused programs resulting from that dialogue. So it's not a prescriptive thing; it's something that has to be developed in conjunction with the entities with which these communities are already in dialogue, or it has to start from scratch.
I think agriculture has a role to play, but we are maybe not well versed in how to initiate this dialogue process and how to help respond to the need. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, as well as universities such as ours, has a role to play, and there may very well be other departments in the federal government and provincial governments that need to be linked to this.