I've travelled the country over the last couple of years, talking to groups and looking at poverty in the neighbourhoods of our major cities. One of the groups that show up most often is the aboriginal people. According to Stats Canada, aboriginal people make up the fastest growing demographic in Canada. I see programs in my own community that are underfunded and could be helpful in getting those young people into preschool and readiness programs, like Head Start. These programs could be working with families. Yet they're out there trying to run their programs on the proceeds of bake sales and car washes. We have Indian friendship centres, we have Head Start, we have a number of other excellent programs run by aboriginal people themselves. All of them, though, receive minuscule funding.
You talk about your colleague Minister Strahl. But they're not seeing any commitment to what is both a huge challenge and a wonderful opportunity for Canadians—to take advantage of this new, exciting group of people who are coming on stream and could be the future for us.