You are totally right. I did spend some time about two hours north of Yellowknife in Kugluktuk working closely with the mining industry up there, and indigenous employment was one of our big things there as well.
You're right. Everything is more expensive in rural Canada. Gas is more expensive, and you have to travel longer distances to go to work. Recently, the federal government did a federal poverty study on tackling poverty together. Another connection between you and me is that Yellowknife, I believe, was a city involved in that study, as was Tisdale, as a rural community.
The government needs to take a bit more time to figure out what the issues are in rural Canada because they're completely different from what urban centres face. It's hard to find health care professionals, and it's hard to attract people to rural areas. If organizations like SEDA had some funding and support from the government, we could probably do a better job figuring out how to get better labour market participation in the north.