I'm perplexed as well. Why can we provide 250,000 immigrants with a better life in Canadian very year without any special effort yet not the 25,000 natives in NW Ontario? Maybe if the chief found the answer to that he would have the answer to his question.

Be careful when you use the term immigrant versus refugee. I didn't look to see if your number of 250,000 immigrants to Canada is correct, but that's partly irrelevant. Immigrants to Canada fall under several categories. Some come in sponsored by a Canadian husband or wife. But many of those who come in "out of the blue" do so because they have a lot of money that they're bringing to Canada to set themselves up and invest. Canada can use those people. I'm not sure of the specifics of that approach to emigration, but there used to be an "Imigrant Investor" program where you were able to get a permanent residence card if you met a certain set of stringent financial conditions. I believe it was something like you had to have a personal net worth of $1.6m, you had to give an interest-free loan (deposit) to Canada of $800,000 for five years, you had to invest at least $400,000 in a new business that created at least three full-time new employment positions, etc.

Not to take away from the problems with our own First Nations. They need attention.