Thank you, Madam Chairman. I'll make a comment and then ask a question.
You talk about the urban population. I have no official aboriginal populations in my riding, but I do have a huge urban population in the city of Lethbridge. Some say it's as high as 6,000, 7,000, or 8,000. I have always encouraged them, and if they would get together, they could elect the mayor, if they wanted to, and run the place, but we have a little trouble getting them to do that.
I mentioned to you earlier, when I shook your hand, that the friendship centre in Lethbridge is a real model of success. It's brought the community together in a way that I haven't seen very often with other organizations. The business community, the college, the university, the municipal government--everybody's involved.
They came to see me recently, and their issue was student housing. The University of Lethbridge and the college have quite a few aboriginal students. The university, of course, has a Native American studies program that's very highly regarded. They indicated to me that the students will come, whether from the city or from the two large reserves next to the city, start university, and then just quit. They come and then they don't last very long. It doesn't take very long: by Christmastime, sometimes, they're gone. They think that if there were housing for them so that they could use public transit and other things, this dropout rate would improve.
Across Canada, is this a theme that you see or can comment on ?