Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I, too, have just returned from the conference organized by Nunavut Tunngavik called Nunavut Sivummut: Beyond Tomorrow. This conference, which was attended by delegates from all over Nunavut and southern Canada, spent three full days working very hard to examine issues and strategies to ensure a better economic future in Nunavut.
The delegates included Inuit community leaders, NTI executives and board members, representatives of regional Inuit associations, development corporations, banks, co-ops, mining companies, federal and territorial governments and several MLAs who were able to get away for the session. As in large meetings of this kind, a very important part of the meeting was the networking that took place behind the scenes. I'm sure that the seeds of many joint ventures and other initiatives have already been sown at this conference.
Madam Speaker, I was struck by two things about the meeting. Firstly, the high degree of optimism and confidence with which all delegates looked to the future and, secondly, the high degree of consensus reached on the major challenges and solutions ahead. The major focus of discussions and recommendations were on strategies to deal with social issues; particularly, less reliance on outside, professional help and more reliance on the strong base of human resources already in our communities to deal with healing.
There was a very strong emphasis on more job-oriented education strategies, on the urgent need for trades training, on the need to have more professional training, and the need to motivate and develop a trained workforce, beginning with our youth. There was also a great emphasis on reducing transportation costs and providing more access to capital. Delegates focused on small business, privatization, less bureaucratic and more decentralized business assistance programs. There was also widespread agreement on the merits of a northern mineral accord to capture resource revenues, and much talk about reducing the reliance on government.