Anyone who is involved in the private sector knows that it's always very competitive. You have to have the relationships in order to know where to purchase and where the best labour is for whatever industry you're working in. Capital is an important part of that in order for you to take a position, whether it is as a partner or as an owner. There are lots of opportunities that could potentially have been available here for first nations as a collective. The cannabis industry was one big part of that.
There's an exclusion of first nations from many of the industries here in Manitoba, and we haven't been able to capitalize to the extent where you're starting to see quality of life change, or you're starting to see job growth outpace population growth. Poverty growth continues to be the trend here in Manitoba, and it's leading to an 11-year gap in life expectancy.
It's important that there be an availability of capital for us in order to make purchases in different major infrastructure developments like the transmission line that went through. There could have been an opportunity there for us to own. There are many expansions happening in different suburbs throughout Manitoba, throughout Winnipeg. We don't own that land.
Meanwhile, we're owed millions of acres, but it's business as usual while we're still left negotiating 20 years after the agreement was signed. It's twenty-five years later, and we're still sitting here without capital, without the land and still being told to wait. Hopefully, one day we may get those lands back, but in the meantime, industry is continuing to move forward, and capital is restrictive; so is the bureaucratic red tape. When it came to cannabis, we were excluded. When we try to create our own industries, the province comes down on us and tries to regulate and closes down our shops.
That's the challenge for us. It's an economic blockade, and we need to continue to address it. These are the reasons there's poverty for first nations. There's not a lot of support for foreign investment for first nations communities, or to give the guarantees for foreign investment into first nations. That could be located near railway lands. That could be located in market areas that are favourable for investment. Those are the challenges that are important for us to understand and hopefully to address.