Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Nanaimo--Cowichan for sharing her time with me today.
The government had an opportunity in this budget to make a real difference for ordinary Canadians, but it missed that opportunity. Billions of dollars in surplus could have been invested in the kinds of programs and services that would make a real difference for working families.
People of my riding of Vancouver Island North are looking for investments in our communities. Once vibrant forestry and fishing communities are on the brink of becoming ghost towns. There is a real need for something to be done. Those people are having to struggle to maintain their communities through a very difficult time.
More than 20 different first nations bands in the riding are also struggling. They have a proud history in Vancouver Island North, but it is hard to move forward when the very basic things they need, which most of us take for granted such as adequate housing, clean water, roads and bridges to their communities, are either lacking or they are in serious need of repairs. I will come back to some of that in a minute.
First, I want to talk about the things which all Canadians are concerned about, such as our health care system that is need of serious repair. Waiting lists for surgeries and emergency rooms grow. There are not enough trained health care professionals. With the surplus, the government could have addressed some of those issues, an area that the previous Liberal government cut to the very bones over the past 13 years.
The Romanow report, a comprehensive study on what is needed in our health care system, outlines what Canadians are looking for when it comes to solutions. It says that federal funding to the provinces must be increased by at least 25% to begin to address the serious shortages.
The government could have invested in home care for our seniors. Inadequate home care services and funding impacts our most vulnerable family members. With the shortage of hospital beds, funding for home care would also help alleviate wait times in our hospitals. It would provide dignity for our seniors who helped build our country. Once again we are letting them down.
Another major industry in my riding is the forest industry. It has had its share of difficulties over the past two years, including the illegal softwood lumber tariffs and raw log exports. While the budget mentions $400 million Canada-wide for the forest industry, half of that is to address the pine beetle infestation. Raw log exports are killing our north island communities. It is a serious issue and it is one that must be addressed. While it is important to settle our cross-border disputes, it is shameful that there is less money in this budget for Canada's forest industry than we have left on the table in the softwood lumber deal. There was an opportunity to invest in resource communities. With billions of surplus dollars, a fraction of those would have helped these communities to diversify and grow again.
Another serious crisis is in our fishing industry. We have seen almost a collapse of our wild salmon industry. We were looking for some money for salmon enhancement programs and rebuilding the aging infrastructure of our hatcheries. There was nothing in the budget except another tax credit.
North island is concerned about investment in our communities and in our resource industries.
Earlier in my remarks to one of my hon. colleagues, I talked about the deplorable conditions on first nation reserves. I have had several letters from some very young community members from Kingcome Inlet. I would like to read two more excerpts from these children's letters.
Morgan Brittany, an 11 year old in grade five, has lived in Kingcome Inlet for nine years. Her family has lived there for hundreds of years. She writes:
We need your help because there are accidents in the river. We need a road.
We travel on roads every day and we take that for granted. All they are asking for is a road. She continues:
We have to wait for high tide to go down the river. We have to wait for boats too. Sometimes it is very cold and we can die. It is dangerous for babies and elders. I hope you can help us.
Janessa Voyageur is a 10 year old in grade four. She has lived in Kingcome Inlet for one year. Her family has also lived there for hundreds of years. She writes:
We need your help because we always have floods. When it floods, big logs float down the river and if we are sick and it's flooding we can't even get to the airplane. It costs lots of money to get our groceries up the river. Please give us a road so everything can be easy for us.
With a lack of investment in first nations on reserve communities, to which I think the previous colleague spoke, residents of those communities are facing serious issues. They are already remote and we have made them even more remote.
It is important that we address some of these issues and ensure that there is adequate funding for the first nations across Canada and in my riding of Vancouver Island North. They are struggling day by day to live and not be thought of as second class citizens.