I had a chance to sit with the chief of Grassy Narrows not that long ago, and we spoke about the opportunities in their communities—building much-needed infrastructure; having a shared vision for economic prosperity; coming to terms with a harsh reality that this government was the first to act on, by indexing the pensions from the mercury.

We don’t need to stand here and feel badly about the work that we do with Grassy Narrows. We continue to work with that community to ensure that they have the same opportunities that other Indigenous communities in the surrounding area have and want in forestry and mining and in their interests of protecting their land.

Grassy Narrows is in dire need of community-level infrastructure. We work very closely with them, and I’ve asked the chief—we’ve sat down together to ensure those shared priorities come about. In that community, there is a critical need for places and spaces for young people to go, and this is the kind of thing that we’re working on.

The Indigenous communities that share Treaty 3 land with Grassy Narrows are excited about opportunities both in mining, forestry, and local infrastructure—so that prosperity is a shared value and a shared opportunity, once and for all, in the Kenora district.