Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for mentioning Wawatay Radio, which is the connecting point for all of our northern communities that otherwise are not able to, in some ways, communicate. We need to see the digital infrastructure built.
The fundamental issue comes down to meeting the existing provincial standards. For years, Indian affairs has been telling children to go out and meet the provincial standards if they want to pass, but that it is going to fund at the federal rate, build smaller schools than the provincial standards and that it is not going to meet those standards.
Education is the beginning. Fort Albany has a good school that is underfunded, but the sense of hope in those children is remarkable because the school is the centre of that community. Every one of our first nations communities needs to have a school that is the centre point and that is culturally based, like in Fort Albany. The elders come in, sit in a central circle and the young people come in and feed them. There is a sense of community.
That is how we start to heal. That is how we build the opportunities. That is how we will see the immense resources that these communities have to offer the rest of our country and themselves.