I think what needs to happen is better communication. We have to have a vision about making Canada a better place for all people, all first nations, and owning up to the wrongs, decades of wrongdoing against the first nations people.
Look at what happened in Grouard. I was born 20 miles from Grouard, in High Prairie. There was an announcement today of these graves.
Let's not hide the wrongs; let's make it right and let's have better communication. Let's take first nations seriously. Let's help them become owners of major infrastructure so that we can help them build homes and we can help them send more kids to school.
I have a population of 900 kids from 18 to 30 years of age. What do the other 800 do? They start a family young, maybe join a gang, maybe sell some drugs or leave the reserve. These are the only options. If you don't have an economy on a first nation, you have to think of something, or you live on welfare and show your kids that.
Why can't we work with the first nations to stand them up where they can show their kids a generation of hard work? In terms of some of the barriers and what needs to really happen, we need to be offered the capital and these loans that we could pay back over time, but we could benefit and get into these major projects that would help.
You know what? We need to have the oil leave Canada and we need to have this sector. For many years, Canada has benefited from the “dirty tar sands”, as people call it, but they will graciously take the dividend. However, the first nations don't get that dividend. You know where the first nation starts, because the county grader turns around and goes back and grades towards the taxpayers per se. That's what the NRTA has really done to our people; it really has put us at the poverty level where we're begging, whereas we should be working together to try to make a better Canada for us.
The biggest barrier is not having that capital, but we are serious and we want to own this infrastructure, such as the TMX. With the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group from Treaty No. 6 all the way to the coast, some of these chiefs say they watch these tankers leave but they also watch these whales flip. However, they don't get a dime off that tanker. How do we come together and make this a reality?
Thank you.