I agree with Mayor Blake. The big issue for us is the same thing. We are working well together in the public sectors here locally, and we are working with the oil industry as well. We're trying to make sure that we're all at the same table. What's lacking is the government is not at our table.
So we don't derive any benefits in help. All of our funding and infrastructure comes from one source. In the last five years, I can tell you we haven't received any funding for capital infrastructure.
In essence, we've proposed different formats on how we might be able to address these issues collectively. We're at the National Energy Board hearings right now, making our case for the first time ever, because it's the only place we have to be heard—and hopefully here.
The federal government, with the provincial government, could have a major role to play in looking at infrastructure and targeting areas of growth, such as this one—it's unusual. As I said, I've worked all over Canada, from Montreal right through to Vancouver, but I have never seen this kind of exponential situation. It's not just regular growth, but also the construction growth and all of these things that are inflating our capacity.
So I think there could be a common approach, and the federal government should be playing a role. I notice that recently they announced some money for roads. Maybe they could do the same thing for areas like this that generate a significant amount of revenues for both the federal and provincial governments across Canada, with jobs numbering in the thousands. If we don't invest here, then what becomes of us? I think in the end that could be an opportunity.
The area of human resources is incredible. How can we allow the situation to deteriorate, not just here in Fort McMurray but across Canada? We need to begin to look at health and human resources as a critical support structure. Personally, I think health is an economic engine of Canada.
I just signed a contract for international recruitment. I have to invest millions of dollars to recruit out of country in order to survive.
The investments to produce health professionals should be made here in Canada. And when you look at the length of time it takes—four years to train a nurse, seven years for a nurse practitioner and for a doctor, and fourteen years for a specialist—we know that even if we started to solve this problem today, we won't see any benefits for the next five to ten years. So our only hope right now is to recruit internationally, and I think this is a sad day for Fort McMurray.
Right now, regarding our out-of-region volume activity, 28% of our patients are leaving Fort McMurray to go somewhere else. This is increasing; it's an exponential number. That doesn't happen in most places I've worked, where it would be less than half that.
Unless we address the capacity issue, and more importantly the human resource issue, northern regions of Canada—and more so, Fort McMurray because of the growth and the cost of housing, and so on—will not be able to compete or provide services to the degree they should. Personally, I think it's a crisis in the making, and it's unforgiveable that we would not address this issue collectively.
That's my personal point of view, but I feel very strongly about this. On the human resource front, and regarding infrastructure for both the municipality and for health, the federal government could make a difference here.
Thank you.