Thank you for coming today.
I'm going to deal with what I think is one of the most serious situations.
But first I'd like to wish our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, happy birthday. He's 54 today, and I think it's very important. He is one of the most important people to our economy, for certain.
I do want to talk to you, Peter, in relation to what I consider to be one of the biggest issues and dramas, and quite frankly one of the best opportunities we have in Canada. That is, of course, first nations people, with the highest rate of poverty of any group, the highest incarceration rate of any group, and the highest birth rate or fastest growing of any group.
I think it is the best opportunity, because to my way of thinking...and coming from Fort McMurray and knowing Jim Boucher, who used to live with my brother back in the seventies when he was just a young fellow, that is definitely a very successful situation—$130 million or $133 million in sales last year—but it's not an unusual story.
In fact, there is a true correlation. My nephew, Dwayne Jean, who is also a treaty aboriginal from Janvier—and I think you know him—started a business two years ago. He just told me—I was pinging him—that he did $2.5 million last year, and this year he's already at $5 million and the year is only halfway through. He has a company with 40 employees; he has water trucks and sumping. It is an amazing success story. He has $2 million in the bank. This is a guy who spent 10 years in and out of jail, in Drumheller in particular, but...tremendous success over the last few years. Why? Because there seems to be true correlation between successful aboriginal communities and resource development.
Would you agree with that?