Our young people are, like I said, more than mining, more than any other resource that we have. Our young people are our biggest resource. Our job as leadership people who are at the decision-making tables is to open doors for our young people and give them opportunities.
What a great opportunity to have this northern Saskatchewan search and rescue base and get these people out on the land. We have a high rate of suicide in all of our first nations communities, and our young people are looking for and needing those opportunities. We've got to open the doors.
Our people are the best. They are out there in -40° or -50° weather. I used to sleep outside with my dad, going hunting in the Arctic in northern Canada. That's what we teach our children. How best do we respond to threats? If we need to navigate, we listen to the trappers, the people who are out on the land. Our young people are graduating high school with very few opportunities in northern Canada.
With the Canadian Rangers, there's some of it there, and they really enjoy that, being out on the land and sharing their knowledge, the survival skills. If we ever get any threats coming from the north, our people are the number one people to respond. They're going to be the ones who are going to be called upon for food and for services that are needed and certain capabilities I'm pretty sure you don't have.
I experienced it. I have family who go into the north, and they have accidents. I go out there and respond to some of these emergency services, and I called 911 from out in the boonies, up in the Arctic. They said, “Vice-Chief, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know how to help you.” I said, “These people are going to be dying if we don't respond.” For three days people get stuck in the Athabasca sand dunes without any emergency response. Planes can't land, so what do you do? Nothing? People get into snowmobile accidents when they're hunting, or somebody gets hurt and you can't respond to them for three or four days? That's not acceptable.
We have those capabilities, and somebody has to make that call and say, “Yes, get our people out there.” I think it's the RCMP, at the end of the day, that has to make that call. We have that capability. If we have support, we can provide that support in northern Canada, and our young people are just so eager to get out there and show what they can potentially do.
Thank you for that question. I think it's very important.