Good evening, everybody. My name is Dr. Erin Freeland Ballantyne. I'm from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and today is my 35th birthday. There's no place I'd rather spend it than with all of you talking about how we spend well for the future of our country.
I'm a mom of three. I'm a born and raised northerner, and I'm the dean of land-based education at Dechinta. We're a land-based university, rooted in indigenous knowledge and values. I'm going to take our five minutes to share with you how we think Canada can make impact investments that can result in closing the education gap while growing an indigenous innovation and knowledge economy in the north.
Canada is the only circumpolar country that does not have a circumpolar university, and while we're all very aware at this point—