Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before I begin, I just want to take a minute to thank the minister and his team for being here. I know they're busy people and it's a challenge. I also want to congratulate the minister on becoming a grandfather recently, I believe. That's something new in his life, and as a person who has also experienced that recently, I'd say it's the best thing ever.
Isn't that right, Minister? I just want to congratulate you on that.
Minister, just over a year ago, we were actually able to meet in person in the committee room in Ottawa, and as we discussed the estimates—the mains for this year and supplementaries from the year before—you and I had a conversation about the philosophy of your working towards eventually ending the role of Indigenous Services Canada and indigenous communities gradually taking over their services and becoming independent. You and I had an interaction around the number of jobs that were being added and some of those kinds of things.
Beyond the growth of people in the department, there's been some increase in spending. Understandably, with COVID, there was, as you said, $4 billion. We are also talking about $2 billion over the last two years, I believe. There are a couple of other things I would just throw into the mix here. Some really significant generational opportunities have been lost, Keystone XL being one of them, for five first nations in Alberta and my province of Saskatchewan. Last week Chevron Canada announced that it had not been able to find investors for its Kitimat LNG project—again, a generational opportunity for 15 first nations that's been lost.
I've heard from many indigenous organizations, as I've engaged with them, about the great difficulties of trying to proceed with projects in the investment environment. I couldn't help but notice that in your letter for the 2020-21 plan you refer to this philosophical desire to kind of end the existence of the department, but we don't see that in the 2021-22 plan. At a meeting I had last week with one indigenous economic development leader, he told me the only solution to solving all of the socio-economic issues in our communities is jobs, jobs, jobs.
My philosophical question for you is this: Can you explain how the goal of having indigenous self-determination and of eliminating of your department, long term, can ever transpire without economic prosperity in the communities?