Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank our witnesses today for their excellent testimony.
I'm going to begin with Mr. Devereaux.
In 2018, during a meeting of the environment committee, a director of infrastructure for your organization at the time, Gary Wong, noted significant cost factors in association with the remoteness and isolation. You referenced many of those today in your comments, and many of them beyond the infrastructure and housing costs.
As someone who represents a northern and remote riding, I understand the increased costs of transporting materials to remote sites, and I understand the value of experts and skilled labour in some of those remote communities. In 2018, Mr. Wong said:
There is a great desire in the north to build capacity, to therefore try to involve and train more local people to become familiar with infrastructure. It's almost for the next generation, because it doesn't exist today, and we're building toward that. It is a cost factor, and those economic development parts of contracting in the north are extra cost factors.
I'm curious as to what measures your organization has taken since 2018, based on Mr. Wong's testimony, to increase local skilled labour and whether you're seeing some success from some of those measures.