I think that's a fantastic point, for a couple of reasons. One of the things that people forget is that doing any of this type of work in the north costs about 10 times what it costs to do the same type of development work, for instance, in the south. I think it's also lost on people that much of the infrastructure that exists in the south, of course, doesn't exist in the north. It is the state and the tools of the state that ultimately have to provide some of the resources that we would take for granted in the south, and to do it at a much lower cost.
This is why I think the state needs to be actively involved, and this is why I think of this sort of unit that can, on the one hand, be tasked with helping in the development of northern communities—and of course helping northern communities is a gain in terms of prosperity and is a gain on equality of opportunity for all Canadians—while at the same time having that unit be able to respond. When it's not needed, it can work on development issues in the north with particular communities, and when it's needed, it can flip to disaster response.
I just want to highlight, in response to your comment and also the previous question, that using the reserves to do this comes with a particular challenge, because the reserves are plagued by high turnover and an inability to reach certain training standards, and they're only available on a case-by-case, volunteer basis. That is why you need a permanent force structure, because then you can employ the reservists [Technical difficulty—Editor] on contract, who will actually be there for you permanently to be able to work on these particular issues, rather than this ad hoc reliance on whatever teams we can cobble together when we happen to need them.