Màhsi’, MP Idlout. It's great to see you again as well. I often appreciate our many discussions on issues impacting the northern territories.
The Gwich'in seek what every Canadian seeks and at times takes for granted: a good job, a quality home, proper schools, access to athletics and opportunities for our young people, sound infrastructure and a level of local economic development. In a western economy, this only occurs with major investment by existing levels of government and private industry. As I mentioned earlier, our communities are often prevented from...this private investment. That limits our local economic development.
In its simple form, I see economic reconciliation being the creation of an economy that allows entrepreneurs to set up local businesses to provide the amenities many of our communities do not have access to at the current time—the simple things I mentioned that are taken for granted, like a Tim Hortons, for example, in some of our major centres and the ability to access food and things people in southern Canada enjoy. Those are things many of our people look to have in the future. It's having the ability for that economy, whereby we are investing in local businesses and people have good jobs and live in good, energy-efficient homes. Right now, in the north, as you all know, heat and power are incredibly expensive. We need to change this for the benefit of our residents, moving forward, so they don't ever feel the need to move elsewhere—particularly to the south—for economic reasons.
Economic reconciliation, for us, means bringing a lot of what we see in southern Canada and the western economy into our communities, allowing for investment by our people and others.
Màhsi’.