Thank you, Chair, and again thank you to everybody for being here today.
Mr. Jules, you're a breath of fresh air, I must say. As I drive though some of the local reserves in my riding and I see the problems, I think that if these don't break your heart, you don't have a heart. I think that's reality. Where I get really conflicted as a member of Parliament is when we look at that situation and look for solutions within the existing structure. I say this because I just don't see these being there. When you hear people say, throw more money at it, and you talk to the individuals, they come back to you and say you can do that. So I still don't see the benefit of throwing more money at it. It's always about the efficiency of that dollar being used. Does it actually achieve the intended results?
I look back at my farm. When I expanded my farm, I could actually take my land and leverage it. I could take that leveraged money and buy more land and grow my business, my farm. When I look at my friend whom I went to school with, who lived on a reserve, he had no assets to leverage. He had nothing to put up for collateral or security. Right off the bat he's at a disadvantage when he gets out of grade 12. He can have the exact same education, but the opportunity isn't there because he doesn't have that ability to leverage his assets that he utilizes.
When you talk to some of the elders about this situation, they say they don't want to see that land being given up for leverage. They don't want to see that land ever leave the band per se.
How do you address that question? How do you move this file forward addressing the concerns of the elders yet still recognize that what we're doing now isn't working, so it needs to change?