Well, what I'm hoping is that we can be making some progress on the further details of what we're going to be able to discuss. The federal government so far has not been part of the process. In our discussions, I think the province and the first nations are agreed that it's important for us to increase the level of discussion with the federal government, because there are some implications.
Just to give you one simple example, if you move from being a remote to a, quote, “road access” community, that affects your INAC funding. One of the things we hear from the communities is why would we agree to something that's going to affect our transfer payments from INAC? We then have to say, well, let's look at the overall range of things that are being done and make a difference that would actually allow people to feel more comfortable in how they come about making those decisions.
That's just one very small example, but there are others as well in terms of how roads are going to be funded, how electricity is going to be funded, how broadband is going to be funded, and so on.
I'll give you another example. We're trying to develop more of a community health approach within the Matawa region. We've had some support from the government to do that. We have some proposals on the table and some stuff is being done, and we're working with the Lakehead school and so on. I had a meeting the other day with the dean of the northern medical school of Lakehead and Laurentian. He told me, look, we don't have connectivity in the communities that's sufficient to allow us to put in the most up-to-date radiological equipment; we're still in the 1950s in terms of what it takes to get an X-ray from Eabametoong to Thunder Bay and to then say what the treatment is. As a result of that, for the relatively simply procedures, everybody has to leave town. Everybody has to be flown out. You fly out of Eabametoong, you fly to Thunder Bay, you stay overnight, your family comes down, and then you fly back. It's inconvenient for the individuals, it's hugely inefficient, and it's extremely costly.
We're wasting lots of money because we're simply not upgrading the infrastructure in these communities. That's a practical example of where the federal government is going to be involved with those discussions if we're going to be successful at making the breakthroughs we need.