Mr. McLeod, thank you so much for your question. I'm very happy to see that your people were able to participate in these programs.
By what you have just said, I think we have concrete evidence of why it's important that all groups be included. It is very maddening when you see certain groups benefit from the federal government's largesse, while other people do not. As I stated in my opening remarks, the distinctions-based approach used by the federal government benefits roughly half a million people, when we know according to the government's own statistics, its own numbers from StatsCan, that about a million and a half people are now living off reserve.
We're saying, what's good for the goose should also be good for the gander. There should be no distinction between indigenous people. Everybody should be considered equal, whether they're on reserve or off reserve, up north or down south. We know there are a lot of northern indigenous people who live down south. Everybody should be treated the same. That's why we are meeting with all these groups to try to get the government to change its mind.