Thank you for the question.
When you look at the opportunity to do this in a collaborative and inclusive space, when you're bringing in academia, when you're bringing in indigenous organizations and groups that want to be a part of these types of initiatives, I can tell you that the relationship the government has had with indigenous people has not been great. That initial reach-out of being involved in research, when you have western scientists coming on our lands, poking and prodding and then leaving, and then maybe sending a report later on saying what they've found in language that does not mean anything to the community member, is not a real relationship. That's just sharing information.
The opportunity that we have—it was mentioned earlier by one of your presenters—is that if we create the space with appropriate funding to be able to allow indigenous peoples to be in this conversation, I think you're going to be able to find value in that. We have very good evidence so far in a very small sample size. We're only talking five years. That's why we're looking at having it expand.
Holistically, if you're looking at it, we started this project in the mountains, but what we really found very quickly was it transcends beyond mountains, so we needed to include more in the conversation so that more of this voice could be heard.
As was mentioned earlier, it has to be funded. The studies we're doing in these remote locations are very expensive and cost-prohibitive. You have to be able to align that conversation.
The Canadian Mountain Network has provided an access point for people to come in and start. It's just starting.
Marsi.