I want to go back to what Ernie said, which is that the federal government has to recognize and permit aggregations. We have to move beyond the Indian Act mentality. This act is only there to support.
You raised the communities that participated in the 2010 Olympics. It was the recognition that we could get a benefit collectively that we couldn't get individually that made us come together. We'd been in court against one another prior to that. All of a sudden, that all changed, and it changed the whole mentality.
Part of that is finding a reason to want to do it and finding an economic benefit that causes people to want to do it. That's really important. It's the ability to come together. Look at the Clearwater transaction, as an example. Had they had an entity, why couldn't we have dealt with the entity? Why do we have to deal with the individual Indian bands?
We have to start recognizing that as the economies grow in first nation communities and become more expansive, this notion that everything is going to be done through the Indian band is not valid. It's going to be controlled by the Indian band and we need to be able to facilitate those kinds of investments that need to be made to support that economic development. However, people have to see that they can benefit. It has to be facilitated. The government needs to amend its policies and procedures to be able to do that.
I realize that everything takes time, but the policy decision, the memorandum to cabinet, has to come forward to enable a conversation to take place in these areas. That's what's important right now.