Here are our recommendations to the government.
At least 7% of our population is under 25. The workforce is rapidly changing, so we need to provide our youth with better education and much needed training opportunities. If Nunavut is to succeed as a territory and if our children and our communities are to have opportunities to better themselves, we need to work together to train our people, and especially our youth, to be ready for the new non-government economy that is coming. We need to work together with resource development to help develop strong and sustainable private sector business. That is how our community benefits.
We need to streamline regulatory approaches so that projects don't get hung up in a very long assessment, but we also need infrastructure. The cost of operating in Nunavut is very high. We all know that. In the Yukon, it takes $200 million to start up a mine because they have access to ports and roads. We don't have these things in Nunavut. That's why the cost of a mine in Nunavut is between $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion. We will never see small, $200 million mines in Nunavut until we get more infrastructure. Today, each project needs to plan to build its own supporting infrastructure, including rail, roads, and ports.
Our priorities are training, infrastructure, and business development. In the future, we hope we can work better in partnership with the government and KIA to meet the full potential of our community.
Thank you. Ma'na.