First, I want to say that a report that you should read is the joint task force on education, which my friend and my boss behind me, Gary Merasty, a former MP in northern Saskatchewan, helped drive. It's a great baseline. Gary was tasked by Premier Wall to look at educational components. Most of the stuff I say is from my coffees with Gary.
There is a jurisdictional challenge that our politicians have in this country when 90% of the population lives within 100 kilometres of the United States border, but our resources and the key to those resources are engaging indigenous people in the northern part of the province, where you might have one MP for each of the northern regions. It creates political jurisdictional chaos, because it takes a lot of gumption to invest somewhere where there's a lack of population. We have a growing population, so as leaders you're more inclined to invest in health care for the baby boomers in Mississauga than investing in early childhood education in northern Manitoba, but these are the decisions that need to be done for the long-term benefit and the future resources and the people in Canada.
I think to accompany early childhood education, children need role models. People ask about the value of hiring indigenous people. One of the big things is that when I was three and four, I saw my Dene mother going to work every day. My kids see me go to work every day. I'm sure your kids do. You saw your parents go to work every day. It changes the context of what we see. As indigenous people, like in every culture, we all want to outdo our parents. I'll be more invested in education as a kid if I know that my mother and father are going to work all the time. That's a multiplier effect that will only spur more growth in this country and value for all Canadians.