Thank you for your presentations. It's very difficult to hear some of the tough times that you've gone through. We've been on the issue of suicide for quite a few months now and every time we hear about the challenges that people are facing, it's really hard.
I'm from the Northwest Territories and I lived in a small aboriginal community of 800 people. I also went through a residential school. I went through the issue of languages. I cannot speak any of the aboriginal languages anymore, even though I didn't speak English until I was six years old. I watch every day in my home community, families that are falling apart because of alcohol, because of drugs. I watch as the youth grow to the age where they can find a way to get their hands on booze and they follow that same path. It's becoming a huge issue. It's a crisis situation and it's causing a real sense of despair within our youth, as you've explained. Most of the youth will commit suicide for issues that, for us as adults are fairly small, but for a child or youth, they are huge. For an adult, it's different. It's usually something bigger, harder for them to deal with.
I read your document, both your presentations, and you make some really good recommendations in your documents. I totally agree that we have to start getting our youth to embrace who they are. They have to be proud of being aboriginal and proud of their culture and their history.
When I looked at your document, one of the first things I looked for was roads because your communities are isolated like most of mine are. You talked about housing and housing is a big issue, but you didn't talk about roads. I wanted to ask if you could just explain if that is something you would consider as having a bearing on the issue of suicide, the real feeling of isolation and being separated from the rest of the population. That's my first question.