Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thanks a lot, Madam Chair. I have a flight to catch back to Thunder Bay. It's been a long day.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I guess if we had more time we could talk for hours. You could drill us for hours and we could answer those questions for hours, I guess. Our young people are our most important assets in our community. We're starting to see our young people turning towards our culture and our language and starting to regain that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just to respond to that, as you've said, the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte are like us. We have approval on the first phase, on the provincial side of the approval process. If you want to make a pilot project, use us both. Use one from the south and use one from the north. I don't know where I belong, because sometimes they tell me I'm from northwestern Ontario, and then when it comes to funding, they tell me I'm from the south.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are a couple of things, if I look at it from my perspective in Fort William. In our community and throughout our territories and partnering communities, how you can help us again goes back to the resources. If we look at the original signatories to the treaty, we're one of them.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That would be the major contributor for us right now. That's the thing we're looking for because, as I said, we're going to finance it. Fort William has the ability to finance a $23-million building, but when we're looking after people and dealing with our elders, the federal and provincial governments need to make a contribution to help build that facility, other than giving us that provincial licence right now and lifting that moratorium.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No. That's like intellectual property that belongs to first nations. All that data collection is something we need to discuss. We were close at one time. It just broke down and went in a different direction. With regard to who would get the data, it would be our communities. It would be tools for us to talk about health care or long-term care or schooling issues, and all the different issues that we deal with on a constant basis.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have 13 first nation communities under the Robinson-Superior legal umbrella.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With regard to the developing numbers in Thunder Bay, you're not only talking about the 13 communities that are in partnership under the legal umbrella. There is also Nishnawbe Aski Nation, and a lot of its members are migrating into Thunder Bay for health care and for health care programming and initiatives.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a good point. Maybe it's time for you guys to fund a one-site location for data collection that we monitor, not the federal government or the provincial government or anybody else. It's our data, and it's for our use for making the arguments. We hear the data stuff all the time when we're talking about health care and the opioid crisis and everything.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If we had that solution, we wouldn't be sitting here, that's for sure.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I want to add maybe a little bit to that. You see the opioid crisis that's having an impact on all of our communities. It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from. You see them fall and become frail. Those are people who are going to end up in the long-term care facilities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, we haven't had any push-back from the province as of yet. The last message I got from Sharon Lee Smith, the ADM there, was that this thing will continue forward. The government is trying to find their way through the system right now in terms of how to deal with it. When you look at their announcements, you see that they're still announcing several long-term care beds in Ontario.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's absolutely where it is right now. We're just waiting for it all to pan out. As I said, they're still making those commitments to long-term care, and hopefully we're still in that. We passed the first phase of their approval process in advance of the election, but we'll see where it goes now.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll make my answer shorter.