I bet you can't, because we can't even get to the bottom of how much is actually going into commissions, despite the many questions we've asked here at this committee.
My colleague from Nunavut wrote to the Speaker yesterday to request an emergency debate regarding the government's upcoming failure to meet its deadline to close the infrastructure gap for indigenous peoples by 2030. We now know the infrastructure gap for indigenous communities is about $350 billion. Behind that number are communities across Canada where homes are overcrowded and unsafe, including in my riding. Schools are crumbling, and there are no functional ports. There are 28 communities still under long-term boil water advisories. The government promised there would be none by March 2021, but here we are in 2023, and there are Canadians who still don't have clean drinking water.
We all know that would never happen in Toronto or Vancouver. The government will not meet its deadline. Since 2016, it has spent less than 3% of what's needed to close the gap. Now, we see the government is planning on sunsetting many critical programs and services that indigenous peoples rely on. At the end of this fiscal year, funding for mental health and wellness will sunset. We're facing a decrease in funding for indigenous infrastructure projects, and for the health and safety of first nations on-reserve housing, water and community infrastructure.
Do you see any possibility that the infrastructure gap, which is really a quality of life gap, a health and safety gap, can be closed with only 3%, right now, of the necessary spending that's been allocated? Can you speak to the importance of that actually being closed and how we're going to get there?