Mr. Obed, I'm Rick Casson. I'm the member of Parliament from Lethbridge in southern Alberta.
I have two questions, actually. Some of the documentation we have--it's years old--is on the disparity between the cost of goods in your area compared to costs in the rest of Canada. If there were proper port facilities and unloading facilities there, do you think that would be alleviated to some degree?
As well, you mentioned the lack of Inuit participation in policy development. One thing you mentioned intrigued me--the issue of learning your native language until grade 3 or grade 4 and then changing. Where did that come from?
More generally, in terms of participation, how could we better facilitate that and make sure that we have full Inuit participation on policy development? And what would be the end result of that? Do you see that as a pretty major step or is that just a small irritant?