In fairness, I've been hearing this for 30 or 40 years. In previous lives and doing different work, I've been hearing the same position put forward by industrial associations like yours, or individual mining companies or oil and gas or diamond companies, who keep saying it's a question of time, that it will take several decades. Folks can be subcontractors, they can run kitchens, and they can run trucking operations, but equity participation is much too big a leap, a quantum leap. People often point to the lack of capital as the reason why first nations aren't able to be active equity owners. If that's the problem, then this committee perhaps should turn its mind to how we can make sure that first nations do have access to the equity capital.
On November 30th, 2011. See this statement in context.