Well, I think the oil sands offer an excellent example of that leadership. To date, some $8 billion worth of goods and services have been purchased from aboriginal entrepreneurs. A large part of that is as a result of the investments that oil sands producers have made in the training and the nurturing and the development of those companies. That continues today, to package projects especially so that companies of that size and with that expertise can bid on them and be successful in doing so. In addition, employing more than 1,100 aboriginal employees makes the oil sands industry the largest private sector employer of aboriginal people in this country.
In areas in which we've had the ability to move forward, I think the oil sands industry is an example of success. Indeed, the federal government, the provincial government, and the industry have worked collaboratively to address certain land claims and other issues around the Fort McKay First Nation and others. It's that kind of thinking that we think needs to be applied in a broader sense along the right of way of pipeline projects.
Now, of course benefits are different in that case, in that there is not the immediate proximity to resource development and jobs are of a different nature. But we think it's exactly that kind of reconciliation, if you will, with first nations—with the federal government, industry, the province, and the communities themselves at the table—that needs to happen.