Regional Economic Development  Mr. Speaker, the Iqaluit post office is one of the busiest in Canada, as Nunavummiut must order many items online. As expected, the pandemic has boosted this demand, and it has actually flooded the post office with more than it can handle. Residents of Iqaluit have been calling on the government to make upgrades to this facility for a number of years.

Veterans in Canada  Mr. Speaker, next week, Canadians will be observing both Remembrance Day and Indigenous Veterans Day. Many members of the armed forces have left the comforts of home behind to serve our country here and abroad by participating in disaster relief, rescue missions, armed conflicts and more.

Economic Development  Madam Speaker, to address the comments of the parliamentary secretary, the reason I am bringing this forward in the House of Commons now is because the constituents in his riding asked me to, because he was refusing to listen to them. For good reason, they asked me to investigate this.

Economic Development  Madam Speaker, in June 2019, the member for Sault Ste. Marie, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the economic development initiative for northern Ontario, announced $800,000 of FedNor funding for the tech company Skritswap. It is nearly a year and a half later and Sault Ste.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, I always appreciate the Bloc Québécois holding the opposition to account. Meanwhile, on this side of the House, closer to the Speaker, we are focused on working with the government and, yes, holding the government to account when we need to. As I have mentioned many times, I do not think we should be making these issues political.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, there are so many things we could touch on. As I mentioned in my speech, my riding has the historic resource revenue sharing agreement between Grand Council Treaty No. 3 and the Province of Ontario. I know that resource development is very important to many first nations communities across my riding and across the north.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, my colleague from London touched on many different aspects. I will try my best to touch on all of them in the time I am permitted. She noted the buzzwords and the politics around it. While the issue we are debating today is a positive step and a positive symbol, as I am sure she agrees, it is relatively easy and it is definitely not high on the priority list for many communities and many indigenous people in my riding.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, it is an honour to be able to rise today as the member of Parliament for the Kenora riding, rejoin this debate and speak to Bill C-8, an act to amend the Citizenship Act in accordance with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action 94. I must mention that I am very glad to be sharing my time today with the great member for Charleswood—St.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, my colleague from the Northwest Territories mentioned reconciliation and rooting out racism across Canada. I appreciate his comments on that. I want to speak about northern Canada. Obviously there are many gaps for indigenous peoples and all people living in northern Canada.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, when we talk about reconciliation and some of the issues that indigenous and northern communities face, housing is a very big issue. There is overcrowding, and there are structural problems with many housing units across the north. When the government brought forward its latest housing initiative, I was a bit concerned to see that most of the funding was primarily identified for certain large urban centres, and not for communities across the north and indigenous communities, which have been left to fight for the rest of the funds.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, the member from northern Saskatchewan has a very similar riding to mine in northern Ontario and many similar issues. One that he mentioned was the COVID-19 response in northern and indigenous communities. Could he speak a bit more to that and about where some of the gaps existed and what the government needs to do to ensure that northern communities are prepared for any subsequent wave of the pandemic?

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, when we are talking about reconciliation, it is important to talk about all aspects of it and mention some of the things the Liberal government has failed to do. The government has taken some positive steps, which I will acknowledge. All parties have taken some positive steps, and they have all had some missteps and frankly some failures on this file.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, I want to pick up on similar comments in speaking about how important it is that this is sent to committee. It is important that parliamentarians are able to do the work we were sent here to do, such as examine legislation and make sure it is executed appropriately.

Citizenship Act  Madam Speaker, I appreciate that the member for Kildonan—St. Paul emphasized some of the other concrete actions we need to take to help support indigenous communities and the everyday lives of indigenous people, beyond the scope of this proposal. I am wondering if she could expand more on that and speak about some of the further actions the government must take in order to make true and meaningful reconciliation a reality.

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, in the riding of Kenora, the Neskantaga First Nation has been evacuated because they have no water. The water plant has shut down. This summer the government created many new massive programs to address the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, but somehow ensuring clean water for indigenous communities is something it deemed to be too ambitious.