Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, before I ask my question, I want to tell the member how impressed I have been by his response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission events this week. While we do not always agree on policy, I know he is an honourable member whose heart is in the right place. As a former residential school survivor, I want to honour his contribution to that effort and thank him for his work on that file.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's speech and I appreciate having worked with her on a number of files, as she is the northern affairs critic for the Liberal Party. I think she agrees in large part with what I said earlier, which is that the program, while it may need some tweaking, is not something we should throw out.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank our hard-working Minister of Natural Resources and member of Parliament from the great Kenora riding for all his work on this file and on aboriginal files in general. He has an incredible understanding, having worked and lived in those communities himself.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I was in Iqaluit to make the announcement of an additional $11 million and the 5% funding escalator. I know the member has been here for a while, but the supplementary estimates include those amounts. When we brought in that additional funding to bring the nutrition north Canada funding up to $65 million, the member and the NDP voted against it.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what our program does. There is the nutrition north advisory council, which is made up of northerners, in the north. I have met with them. They are passionate individuals from the north, who care about the north, and want this program to be made even better.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, as I made clear in my speech, we welcomed the report of the Auditor General and accepted all of his recommendations. One of those recommendations that the member talked about was already well under way before the Auditor General's report, and that was to increase transparency for retailers to have them publish on the nutrition north website the level of subsidy they were receiving and showing that they were passing that subsidy on to the consumer.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify that the member has said 50 communities in his motion, but he has just said clearly every community should receive the nutrition north subsidy. He said it would cost $7.5 million, those were his numbers, to add 50 communities. How much would it cost to add every community, which is what he has just proposed?

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak today. As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, I am especially pleased to speak to this motion and to update the House on one of the many ways our government is standing up for those living in our northern territories.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank that member for his speech. I just want to clarify some things for the record, however. The New Democrats stated on April 2, 2015, that they would like to see 55 communities made fully eligible for the nutrition north program. A month later, May 26, they said 46 communities should be added.

Yukon and Nunavut Regulatory Improvement Act  Mr. Speaker, it is an undeniable fact that no government in Canadian history has done more for Canada's North than this Conservative government. Certainly, our northern strategy includes four pillars: two of them protecting our environmental heritage, and promoting social and economic development.

Yukon and Nunavut Regulatory Improvement Act  Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This member just made a point about relevance and sticking to the issue of time allocation and then went off onto another issue. I think she should listen to her own words and perhaps stick to the issue at hand before the House.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, actions do speak louder than words. Every time we take action to improve the lives of first nation people, the NDP votes against it. We have brought in matrimonial property rights for women living on reserve. We have brought in water and waste water standards, like all other Canadians expect, for Canadians living on reserve.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, we do thank the truth and reconciliation commission and the commissioners for their work and salute the former residential school students who shared their stories with Canadians. We appreciate that being documented for all Canadians. We will take the time to consider the recommendations in the light of the full report, which will be released at the end of this year, so we can carefully consider those.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister made the historic apology on behalf of all Canadians in 2008, the government recognized that the Indian residential schools caused great harms to individuals, to communities and to an entire society, and that the attitudes that gave way to that policy had no place in Canada.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, we again thank the TRC for its work. We thank the former residential school students for the courage and strength they showed in sharing their stories with Canadians. Canada is one of the only countries in the world where aboriginal and treaty rights are entrenched in its Constitution.