No, my wife would never forgive me if I went anywhere near that; she's a Sudbury girl.
It's interesting to go back and talk about what should have been done by the provincial government, at the federal level, I suppose, and even at municipal levels.
I've been with the department not quite since its inception but for over 25 years now. What I can say is that I think we've been pretty much on the right track. Diversifying an economy like Alberta's is not easy. The weight of oil and gas, particularly when prices are high, is immense. As I said, it's 27% of the GDP now. It was 35% back in the 1980s. It attracts people with its high wages. It attracts capital with its high rates of return. It's kind of hard to compete against.
I think it may be a credit to the government—a series of governments, to be fair—that have stuck with our department for what will be over 30 years next August. It will be our 30th anniversary. They have continually kept up an effort to work towards diversification and to help companies commercialize their new technologies.
Our language has changed a little bit over time, but the emphasis hasn't. Over 50% of aboriginal or indigenous peoples live western Canada. That number has been true throughout this length of time and has been demographically important. We've tried to play a modest role in moving forward the opportunities for indigenous peoples to participate more fully in the economy throughout that period of time.
It's interesting to go back and look, but I think what's required, and partly what's taken, is a long-term perspective of consistently applying force on an object, even if it's fairly small.
I don't know if this is true or not, but I always think of the image of an asteroid coming towards earth. That's like the economy of western Canada, hundreds of billions of dollars. You try to adjust its trajectory with albeit relatively small amounts. If you apply them consistently over a period of time I think you can adjust that trajectory, at least a little bit. When I look back over my career I think we've have some success at doing that.