We had lots of discussion around this topic when we were here a month or so ago, and all of our CSA senior staff spent a day or two on the Hill and had meetings with various members of the government specifically about what CSA could do to support these initiatives.
To your point, I sat in on discussions about water management, purifying water, waste water, waste management, and engaging these people. It was not just throwing a solution on the table and then driving back to Toronto, but staying with them and actually teaching them and showing them how to manage these aspects of life. One topic that came up was with regard to home inspections, and how home inspectors would go in and do a home inspection and come back and provide a report to somebody. You haven't done any good because you haven't sat down with the people and explained why things need to be the way they are, and why the electrical systems and the sewage systems and the water systems need to be maintained. It's a process of education and inclusion.
For us to be able to bring in indigenous people and people from the Northwest Territories and include them in the committees and make them part of the solution is hard because we're a nonprofit and we need funds. If we want to all try to get these people to participate, we're going to actually have to bring them down here. You're going to have to pay their expenses, and allow them to come down and participate in these meetings. The meetings do not happen in the far north; most of them happen in central or regional areas. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. I think if we work on inclusion, make it workable so they can come and participate.... I asked the same question in Alberta. I'm from Calgary and worked in the energy industry for many years, and I said the same thing. Why don't we have more first nations, indigenous people on committees, either with industry or with CAPP, or with CSA? They just don't have the money. They don't make a lot of money and they can't afford to travel.
The other piece of it is providing information in their native tongue. You can't produce something that they don't understand or can't read. You have to work with them and provide that information so that they're capable of actually absorbing the information and providing a response and feeling like they're listened to.