Thank you so much to the witnesses for being here on this very important topic. Among the thoughts that my colleague Mr. Ruimy shared regarding the struggle of jurisdictional responsibilities—whether something is provincial or federal—I think the common theme is the importance of the federal government's providing leadership. I think that's what was shared, and we've heard it before. Whether it's seniors' care or dealing with homelessness or creating a healthy economic environment in which people can prosper, we need to see leadership from the federal government.
Dr. Diette, I really appreciated your testimony and the importance of finding out the causal link, what's causing poverty. I heard an interesting discussion a couple of weeks ago about what creates wealth, how wealth is created and how poverty is created, and whether it is a choice.
In some cases, it may be, but the federal government leadership we need to create is an environment in which there's an opportunity not for hopelessness, not for depression, such that people feel trapped long term and end up with possible mental illnesses, but for creating an environment in which people have hope, there are opportunities for growth, and people can choose to get out of poverty, if given opportunities.
While flying back—I live in Vancouver and fly to Ottawa every weekend—I saw in the Financial Post a very interesting article. It's called “Arrested Development”. It highlighted that 129 billion dollars' worth of infrastructure projects is stalled or stopped in Canada right now. This year alone, $8 billion to $12 billion will be lost.
We've heard that there's an indigenous band—I can't remember the name of the person saying this, but he's going to be testifying, hopefully—in which the unemployment rate on the reserve had been 80% and is now zero because of development. If we have a natural resource development that creates jobs and prosperity in mining, forestry, oil and gas, and hydroelectric, when development stops and there's no opportunity for jobs in these communities, then you have the environment of hopelessness.
I found that very interesting, and this is again an example of the government's needing to provide leadership in dealing with this issue. They did make an announcement that there needs to be consultation and working with communities. There also needs, however, to be wise decisions to take us in and create an environment in which people are able to work.
Among your causal factors, you talked about the different stressors. Is a high tax burden also a possible cause for hopelessness, when you have people actually working and working hard to support their families, but never seeming able to get ahead because of the level of taxation? Is that another possible cause of depression and hopelessness, seeming never to be able to get ahead?