Thank you.
Let me first thank each and every one of you for great presentations.
I'll try to go very quickly here, but three things immediately jumped out at me. One, there seems to be a very clear public policy conflict emerging; I'll explain that right away. Two, the lack of longitudinal research and how that has an impact on the community seems to come out as well. And three, that investment is needed now.
My first question is related to this demographic conflict. We know that a statement was made--I'm aware of this from past experience as well--that Canadian federal government departments try to fund aboriginal, first nations, Métis, and Inuit programs on the basis of reasonable comparability. Looking at that for a second, when we have the general public aging in Canada, going in one direction--the baby boomers are aging--and we have a very young aboriginal population coming up, public policy overall seems to focus on what Canada's greatest needs may be from a public policy health perspective. This is something I see every day. So when you have reasonable comparability as a guiding principle, we're going to have a conflict. I think we've seen some of this.
As my first question, do you feel that what I'm saying is fair, or maybe not fair? If some of the programs maybe don't fit some of the aboriginal communities' needs, what may they be?
My second question is with respect to what the AFN talked about. One of the things that RCAP, mentioned in your presentation, and then the Kelowna accord talked about is significant upfront investment, and that the payback to the aboriginal communities, to the government, to the people of Canada is quite significant even by the year 2016. You gave a specific example.
Within that, what do you think the cost of doing nothing, or the cost of not doing enough, will be in five years, in ten years, in fifteen years? I know that's a heavy question, but this jumped out at me fairly quickly.
I have a third question; I'm trying to spread it around here.
I liked your comment on the research you did in this corner. One of the things I've realized from my past experience is that when you share with the community the outcomes of some research, they really take hold of it. It empowers them. Being that there's a lack of R and D out there that actually comes from the community, this lack of empowerment means maybe less mobilization to respond to some of our issues.
Do you feel that more research and development is required, especially longitudinal studies on aboriginal communities--in this forum, of course, health? And how best do you think we could do that to empower the community as we go forward?
My final question concerns the food mail program. Just quickly, if the food mail program were improved and we got food in cheaper, how would we change the diet pattern in the community?
I'm done; anyone can answer.