Again, recognize that I saw this, from my eyes, and many of our cabinet and other people in the west see this, as being used as a tool to scare industry—that if we support this it will kill their future and their opportunity. That is not true. I guarantee that it's not true.
However, in terms of how I see change, let's look at the educational aspect of the Métis people in Manitoba. Let's look at the health situation in Manitoba. We're behind everybody else. We're highest in chronic illnesses, higher than everybody else. People have to understand this and say, “Okay, we'll fix that.” But if you don't start putting a plan in action that's inclusive, that ensures that the people you're speaking of are actually part of it, then you're not going to solve the problem.
At the end of the day, Métis pay billions of dollars in taxes annually. Every year we pay billions in taxes, but when you look at the services that come to us, because of the jurisdictional debate that still happens in this country between the province and the federal government, we're left out. When you look at it from that concept, we are pushed out of the process of being included.
I think in this process, the country and the governments will now have a responsibility to include the Métis nation to be part of the process in doing the right thing. At the end of the day, I'm still a Canadian. I'm still going to use these hospitals, but I'm going to cost you 10 times more. It will be 10 times more the taxpayer bill. When you look at it overall, if we work together, we can stop and prevent this type of situation, including for our children.
We did a study, and our kids—zero to three, three to five—are falling further behind than anybody else. That shouldn't be. Why should we be the ones falling behind education-wise? We're doing all these studies now. I have evidence, if anybody wants a copy of it, from the University of Winnipeg. They're doing studies. Our children are falling behind every other child when it comes to education in this country.
It shouldn't be. That's our future. That's our investment. We want them one day to be working and paying taxes to make sure we get an old age pension in this country. We want to make sure there's a process established where the next generation will have it better than we do. All of us as parents think that way. All of us as leaders think that way. In order to do that, we need to make sure this bill passes. I can see the future changing. It's coming. The mindset is changing in this country.