From my perspective, infrastructure is really what you're talking about. Traditionally, globally, infrastructure in most countries has occurred as the result of an opportunity to exploit a resource or something. Infrastructure grows up around that exploitation. In fact, if government or corporations or rational people had perfect information on where the hubs of infrastructure should lie or could lie, they would plan it more effectively. It would be permanent by definition and wouldn't be dependent upon one single source of value.
For example, the Ring of Fire is being explored with great gusto right now in northern Ontario. It's a terrific opportunity. Government will face an interesting question at some point, which is if there's a huge find at one part, at Eagle's Nest for example, but there's a critical mass of large finds 100 miles away, where will the infrastructure go? Will it go to both? Will it go to a central hub where both can be serviced? If that information was available, the government would be able to make a rational and economic choice, and a choice that would result in some form of permanency. That's what Gedex is all about, allowing government to have the tools to make those choices.
I believe that whether you're looking at providing funds to increase the infrastructure of ports, of resource centres, or of communities, there has to be a permanence and a growth opportunity within those locations or you are just creating these temporary spikes of growth.
On a related note, I also think that one of the issues that Canadians face is that although we all know the Arctic is there, and we all have a grasp of how important it is and how vast it is, there is a massive misunderstanding about the livability in the north.
I think as infrastructure grows, as cities grow, as locations grow and as climate changes, it's just as important to educate people, that is, Canadians across the country, that these are liveable environments. It's not a barren wasteland. There are families growing in these places. That creates a new sense of frontier, which Canada was built upon.