Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of you for presenting here today.
I want to ask a question to FCM. I have a long history with the organization. I entered politics quite young, as an aboriginal person with the tribal councils. Then, at 22 years old, I became mayor of our community and have been involved ever since. It was because I recognized there was a level of despair in our communities in the north that I took this route. I've been working towards achieving and meeting the Canadian quality of living standards in our communities, and it's an ongoing thing for sure.
The north is quite different from the south. We don't have any communities that are older than probably 60 years. When you come south, you have buildings that are over a hundred years old. You don't find that in the north. Our communities are young. The aboriginal people lived out on the land and only came into communities fairly recently.
When we talk about funding our communities, we really can't talk about one-size-fits-all, because the north is so different. The FCM has really done a lot of good work in that area. When we talked about funding our communities, we partnered with the east coast communities, the jurisdictions that are smaller. We had a lot of things in common. We recognized that per capita doesn't work for us. When the government invests in public transit, well, in all of the Northwest Territories, we may have two buses, so it doesn't really work. We need flexibility when it comes to that.
However, I think a lot of lessons have been learned over the years. Maybe I could get you to talk about some of the things that the north and other smaller jurisdictions need when the government looks at funding, such as base-plus funding. I think that's a good mechanism to use, a good formula to follow.
Could you maybe elaborate on some of the work you have been doing on this?