I really do believe that government and first nations should sit down and have the discussion on what I described earlier on, where we're both equal partners sitting at the table. Then we can start discussing what the issues are.
You look internationally at places like Pakistan and others. These small communities are actually looked at and approached using the multi-input area development, which means you're not just asking NRCan to come in there to look at how you can develop a sustainable community. You're bringing in NRCan, ISC and provincial authorities, and each one of their mandates is able to tackle a particular problem that exists within those communities.
It's not just coming out there and saying, “I'm a representative from the mining sector and I'd like to build you a school.” Well, maybe the school isn't the problem. It could be having access to food and food security. That could be the problem.
You need to be able to let first nations describe what their problems are and then build a solution from there. Multi-input area development is one solution. Some people call it public-private community partnerships.
We need to look at a different model. We need to look at how we can come together and use limited resources that are out there to create a solution about sustainable communities. That could be part of our culture, which includes what we call our “natural capital”, with access to ungulates, fish, wild game and others. That's along with contributions and other access to our resources, so we are able to actually develop a sustainable community.
Quickly, I'll just describe it to you. You look at how the whole population of Canada lives within about 150 kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border. Who lives in that middle point? It's first nations and other people. This is the area that's being developed. Have you developed a workforce that can actually sustain the type of development that's being proposed? No, because you haven't taken that step. Governments have been concentrating on getting them off reserve and out of their communities and back south, and now they don't have a workforce to take advantage of what's there.
We really need to flip this over and look at a new model of doing things.