Thank you very much.
Mr. Russell, those are very good questions.
Starting with the co-management, the Inuit members—or the Inuit caucus, if you will—of NEDCIN prepared a paper that identified about 11 to 12 Inuit needs that should play a role in a new federal framework for AED. That paper was presented last January, it was discussed, and when the federal framework was released, the principles in that paper reflected the Inuit position for the most part.
We were pleased with that, but there is a next step, and that is the program redesign that will take place over the next year. NEDCIN is a joint committee. It's Inuit, but it also includes the INAC headquarters people as well as the INAC regional people, and with the advent of CanNor, we hope to include CanNor in that process.
As you mentioned, co-management is included in all of the land claims. In the land claims it's mentioned, and there are specifically sections on wildlife and resource management. Economic development is not part of that generally, so what NEDCIN has said—and Inuit members of NEDCIN—is that we need to ensure that the same principle is adopted as we move forward. NEDCIN itself is based on the principles of getting together, identifying the challenges, and then working to come up with solutions that satisfy all the parties.
On the northern strategy that was released—and Belinda may want to address that more, because it doesn't deal specifically with economic development—NEDCIN's point of view was that, again, in principle it was good. We wanted to ensure that all the four Inuit regions were included in that northern strategy, and that was not there in the initial documentation. Subsequently it was included.
One of the first needs Belinda mentioned in her presentation was the need to treat Inuit Nunangat as one region. And why is that important? It's important because in all of Canada there are about 55,000 Inuit or Inuvialuit, and they share the common history, the heritage, the language, and the Arctic environment. Many of the problems they face are across all four regions, and they're all very much different from those of southern Canada and non-remote communities. There are very few roads in Inuit Nunangat, and most communities are fly-in or perhaps accessible by water in the summer months or by ice road in the winter.
On the second question, on recognizing the realities and the infrastructure deficit, one of the needs the Inuit brought forward is the need to have a good understanding of the socio-economic impacts of infrastructures and the infrastructure deficit. You mentioned the housing initiative, and that's very important. That has been handled in different ways between the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, but in each case the deficit is being addressed.
Is there enough money? No. The reality is that there's a huge need for more infrastructure. From a nation-building point of view, there are costs that have to be identified beyond what is realistic on a per capita basis. In the north, we talk about sovereignty and we talk about the fact that the Inuit have been there for thousands of years. They need the infrastructure that southern Canada has come to expect as normal.