Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have a challenge ahead of us and it does require some investment. We can’t just turn our back on trying to address the issue. I know the Member’s position is that we can somehow find all the talent we need in the North and if we keep it here it will all be well and good, but first we need an economy.
We have diamond mines that add $1.6 billion to our GDP every year. They have a significant fly-in/fly-out population. We are working with the mines. In fact, there’s a meeting this week to talk about this initiative, as well, from the private sector’s perspective and the things they’re doing to try to keep and encourage their workforce to stay in the North, and it’s a long-term commitment.
You can’t just, after 18 months, throw up your hands and say it’s not working and let’s not do it anymore and then wonder why our population keeps dropping. We have to make decisions, make choices, and we have to make investments, and that’s what this is.