It's incredibly important.
The worst thing that could happen, Mr. Bains, is that the government could say, “Hey, it's broken. It's not working, so let's just stop. Let's not do it anymore.” That's been the history for us. Non-first nations, non-indigenous institutions make mistakes with first nations and indigenous programs and projects and say, “You see? It doesn't work. Let's not do it anymore.” That's not the right path forward.
The right path forward is to take these baby steps forward and to start turning them into adult steps, and getting towards actual “reconcili-action”, where we're starting to move the needle, where we start looking at the data and we start seeing that there are more indigenous peoples involved in the economy of this country, where we start seeing that....
Do you know what solves the rampant food insecurity of first nations? It's jobs. Jobs go a long way toward feeding children, 50% of whom in B.C. are food insecure.
We don't want to step backward. We want to step forward and we want to work together. I think that's a pretty universal sentiment.