Haida Gwaii, as I mentioned, is one nation and one voice. We've come together to represent our interests with the government, and we have 50 years of experience with the self-government process already.
There's a level of maturity there in how we work together among our own different jurisdictions—between our hereditary system at the village council level and the Council of the Haida Nation across the territory—in stewarding the lands and waters. We also have been building good relationships with the people who've come to call Haida Gwaii home and who've settled on Haida Gwaii. We co-operate in matters of emergencies and public service and have recognition as an islands community that we're all better off working together. The interests of the Haida Nation align a lot with the interests of islanders when it comes to wanting to see....
Our experience has seen vast amounts of resources and wealth leave Haida Gwaii through the forest industry and the fishing industry, with very little ever coming back to be reinvested in communities and infrastructure. We don't have any swimming pools, recreation centres or anything to show for the billions of dollars that have been taken off our islands.
Everybody who lives on Haida Gwaii recognizes that, working together, we can do better for Haida Gwaii and make lives better for everybody. That's the commitment we've made in our framework agreement. It's to improve the lives of the islands community, which is the Haida, our municipal communities and everybody who lives on Haida Gwaii. There's that recognition when you're out there.
It takes all of us to keep society going—volunteering and keeping all the recreational opportunities. We all go to school together. We're quite integrated. We have protocol agreements with all of the municipal communities. We meet monthly—myself, the elected leaders from Skidegate and Old Massett, and the mayors in regional districts.
It's to recognize the economy of scale that we need over time to provide better services. We all need to work together and use all of the public money in a better, more efficient way. There's a lot of willingness in relationships built over time, and also for a lot of new, younger people who are moving to Haida Gwaii because they've seen the progressive approaches that we've taken. They're interested in being there to raise their families in this environment, where we all work together and want to figure these things out.