Excuse my absence, Mr. Chair.
I'm Francesco Sorbara. I represent a wonderful, as I always say, dynamic riding—but every riding in Canada is dynamic including the one that Michael represents—of Vaughan—Woodbridge, which literally borders the city of Toronto. You can walk from the city of Toronto across the street to my riding.
I will have to say, though, I grew up in northern British Columbia in a town called Prince Rupert where I know the aboriginal indigenous community very well. There are a number of communities around it from the Haida, Tsimshian, Gitga'at, Gitwinksihlkw, the Nisga'a, and I can go through the rest of the names.
There's a big basketball tournament held there every year, and there's the fishing industry. Also, unfortunately, it's where Highway 16, otherwise known as the Highway of Tears, is. As a kid I used to fish along the Skeena River with my family, and so forth, so I'm very familiar with it.
I have two questions. Please re-emphasize how important the friendship centres are. I know they exist in Prince Rupert and I know they exist in downtown Toronto. The friendship centres are an outreach avenue for kids to go to.
For the Northwest Territories in general, how important is the idea of sustainable economic development? If you look at the province of Manitoba, it seems to have been able to get on to sustainable economic development. It's kind of stable. Here we're benefiting from diamond exploration and tourism.
I know you guys have talked about base versus per capita funding, and I get that, but please talk about those two avenues, the friendship centres and sustainable economic development for the north, please.