Thank you.
I think the root causes of indigenous people flocking to regional centres in every province and region of the country are the assimilation policies and the impacts of those on our communities and regions.
The indigenous leadership initiative in the budget we asked for is to strengthen the communities and regions, create employment and create certainty for investment, as previous speakers from the last panel spoke about.
Indigenous leadership and land use planning, working with our provincial government and industry to determine the best places to protect for biodiversity and conservation purposes, ensuring that the economic grounds are open for exploration and development, and creating certainty for investment—these are the potential responsibilities indigenous governments have in every community in the country.
We need to support them in creating the capacity so that kids are not leaving town and connections are made for those who are already in the regional centres and displaced environments so that they can connect back to their home communities and territories. The land is healing.