Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of you for your presentations. It's a very interesting discussion.
I represent the Northwest Territories, and I listened with great interest to Janet Lane's presentation.
In my previous life, I did some work with indigenous communities in the Northwest Territories. One of the projects I worked on was setting up a pellet operation in the north. I did some assessment in the area and we put a workforce strategy together. It didn't take long for me to realize that, oh my God, we were in trouble. We have high unemployment rates in the north, but at the same time there is a reason for it. The literacy rates are very low.
We also recognized that the ability to manage money, personal financial management, was going to be huge challenge. A lot of people hadn't had a good work record because they didn't know how to manage money. You also factor in addictions in our communities, and it makes it more challenging. There were many people we talked to who said, “There are 16 of us living in a house. We're probably not going to be able to get up in the morning. It's hard to sleep.”
There are huge compounded challenges, in addition to what you said. I'm really curious—and I know you're just talking about the west and you haven't really looked anywhere else—about what needs to be done.
What would it cost to correct some of the shortages and the cognitive skills in other areas that you pointed to?