That's very kind. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
I will continue. I have been given an opportunity to continue with a few points that I wanted to make.
There was one on food security. Food security has been an ongoing and serious problem in indigenous communities, which was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now communities are struggling due to the rising costs with inflation. While budget 2021 did provide funding to expand the nutrition north Canada program, budget 2022 contains no new investments to improve food security in indigenous communities. As food prices skyrocket across the country, more funding is desperately needed to appropriately address this crisis. In the Métis language that we speak, there is only so much macaroni you can eat.
Something has to be done about this. Our communities are getting sick from this kind of food they're eating. It is not quality food. This is something that's happening.
Finally, I did want to speak a little bit longer on the incarceration. We know that it's completely out of control. Report after report is coming out. Indigenous women make up 50% in federally sentenced prisons and they only represent 4%. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, it's absolutely shocking that indigenous women are 85% of the population of these prisons. A large-scale injustice is being perpetrated in Canada. We have a pipeline from residential schools to prisons.
The over-incarceration of women has been recognized as a crisis, even at the international level with the UN special rapporteur. It's a form of violence against women. We need to start untangling this tangled web that we have called “colonization”. When and how are we going to start?
Investments have to be made in communities. We have to provide communities with resources, so that we can take some of these situations in our own hands and have programs—healing programs—to keep our women out of prisons and, when it is possible, to do so in the community.
These are the points I wanted to make. I appreciate the extra time that you've given me. Thank you.