Thank you.
I welcome the opportunity to ask you a few questions.
A very informative presentation. You flagged a number of the issues that challenge us in the north. The issue of growing our economy is an important one. We know that our smaller communities have challenges in terms of out-migration and communities are shrinking in size. We have many social issues across the north. In some of our studies we recognize that suicide is a symptom of the level of despair that has been created. We're seeing, on average, in the three territories a suicide every 10 days, and in the Northwest Territories it's every four to five days. The state of the economy has a role in this and is factored in.
We need to address a number of things. You flagged some of them that are causing problems. The low population numbers result in lower numbers of investment in the north. We have the issue of land claims that are outstanding and self-government issues that are outstanding and need to be resolved, and the lack of infrastructure. But we also have the issue of funding that is based on population, and I wanted to raise that one first.
Perhaps we could just talk a bit more on how we could benefit from base-plus funding rather than population-based investment.