You were saying that governments passed budgets of $285 million and $200 million for skills development. But when that money reaches the community, it is really a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed to provide services and focus more on prevention. Of course, we have to make do with those budgets in order to focus on prevention. And, in fact, we are lucky that the communities are very resilient and determined to help their own people and try to get by with the budgets they're given.
We are dependent on money from the government, because it is only with that money that we can continue to exist and provide services. But how can we retain staff when the environment… In Quebec, people's salaries are much higher. In our communities, experience is not taken into consideration and we hire people at a lower cost, because budgets are limited and do not allow us to pay a salary equivalent to what people are receiving in the neighbouring community. Once people are trained, we're all the same. In my opinion, the priority is to survive, to get along as best you can, be able to earn a living and live reasonably in the world we live in. Wealth gets a great deal of praise, but in the communities, there is a great deal of poverty, often connected to lower wages than what our peers in the governments of Quebec and Canada are generally earning. Compensation is lower.
Earlier someone was saying that because we don't pay taxes, we earn less money. In fact, that is an acquired right. It is a form of recognition we are given because our ancestors lived on this land. We are regularly told that. We are told that we are earning less because we don't pay tax on our income. But a pound of butter costs the same amount of money.