Thank you, Mr. Chair.
From just listening to the comments about energy east, I can understand and share the disappointment, because we in the Northwest Territories went through a similar process with the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. We spent a number of years; we rolled all the regulatory bodies up into one umbrella group, and we brought in the aboriginal people as a 30% shareholder. We had all the ingredients, yet it took a long time and many thousands of questions. It was very interesting that when we went back and looked at who was asking the questions, it was the federal government of the day that was asking 75% of the questions that needed detailed responses.
The industry was flagged in pointing to the need for a road in the Mackenzie Valley. We don't have a road, so that drives the costs way up. At the end of the day, they got their permitting, and to this day, they still have their permits, but market conditions don't allow it to move ahead. Sometimes you can have all the ingredients you require, but the conditions are not right and it's not going to move forward.
That leaves us in the north with a real challenge. I wanted to talk a bit and maybe ask the Calgary Chamber of Commerce some questions, because you indicated a need to increase indigenous participation. I belong to the Dehcho First Nations, and we have a real challenge in front of us with our youth. It's been pointed out that we probably have 150,000 aboriginal indigenous people sitting unemployed in our communities. I have communities that are up to 60% unemployed. It's been predicted that we're going to see 400,000 indigenous youth entering the workforce or of working age in the next while. That's going to really increase the challenges, and we don't have a mechanism for making the transition from education to getting a job in our system. Many leaders have said maybe that should be a requirement, as an attachment to economic projects.
What also caught my ear was the suggestion of a tax credit for employers. Would that be something you might see as a solution to where we're heading, of having even greater unemployment in our communities?
Another challenge, of course, is mobility. Most aboriginal people do not go where the work is, so local employment in the areas is something we need to focus on.