The priorities are to fill in the gaps. That's one of the things we're doing. Again, language and culture are integral to who we are as a people. We're trying to revive them. There has been some movement with the Canadian government around reviving the language and supporting that. So much has been lost and so much work needs to be done.
Also, looking at the infrastructure, we still have people with water issues. In this community specifically, we've had a lot of illegal dumping over the years. Going way back to the 1950s and 1960s, there were dump sites that were created. We don't even know what's in that land. Not all of our land has become usable. There's a lot of testing that needs to be done before we utilize lands. It's very concerning when people have private land and they want to build. What is there?
We have the highest rates of scleroderma, autoimmune diseases and cancer, you name it, within this community. The rates are outrageous for a community as small as ours.
We also do a lot of servicing and helping when it comes to health. The older population sometimes has to choose between medicine, food and hydro. As the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, there are so many areas that we need to fill in. Things are brought to us on a regular basis.
Just this week a man came forward who needs assistance in his home—a ramp, an elevator or something. Every evening he's dragging himself from his wheelchair down to his bedroom in the basement. He'll go down in that manner.
The needs in this community are from the little to the large. Again, it's an endless list for us. The government does not fund all of the needs in indigenous communities, as we have seen. There are many holes.
When it comes to education, we've been fighting so hard for secondary education. We try to promote people to further their education in this community but there's not enough funding for that. There are many challenges. The list goes on and on.