Thank you.
I'd just like to thank Mr. Rickford for his background as the MP for a riding, number one, geographically this size, and for the challenges he faces in representing all the constituents. In a private discussion we had, I was taken aback at the number of communities that have no access by road.
I guess my question—and I'm not being facetious, but I'm just racking my brain—is how do we successfully provide services to communities like that? It would seem to me that there are certain issues--and in this case maybe geographical--that inherently can't be easily solved.
For instance, there is the issue of women in leadership roles. I was always an advocate of getting women involved in politics. The reality is that there's a certain period of time, when they're maybe raising children, during which we just can't attract them. It just isn't in the cards.
Chief--or any one of you--how do we overcome that? Would the people in these communities be happy remaining there if the services were there or would they want to be closer to the services if they had a decent standard of living? I don't have a sense of that. Is this geographically a place where they'd like to be?