Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to find you back in a position that I knew well six years ago. I am going to turn the second part of my time over to Ms. Beaudin.
Welcome and thank you for being with us today.
I would like to start with the situation of the First Nations that Mr. Picard and Mr. Lafrenière spoke about. I will ask Mr. Picard first.
When talking about the standard of living of First Nations, I find it quite troubling that, not only do I have the impression that we are more or less in the same situation as we were at the beginning of the 1980s, I am almost convinced of it. I grew up in northern Quebec. I have had a lot of interaction with Aboriginal nations in my life, mostly the Algonquin, but also the Cree. I feel that I am hearing the same thing as I heard then, particularly before 1990. In 1990, you obtained that kind of commitment from the Canadian government, and it was unanimous. The parties agreed to reduce poverty, and, among the programs designed to achieve that, some specifically targeted First Nations.
I followed the work that you did in Mashteuiatsh in 2006 very closely, as well as the work the following year in Val d'Or. I find it astonishing that, 17 years later, you are still bringing up the question of a lack of information and other basic questions like that. Mr. Picard, you wanted a commitment to create 10,000 jobs for Aboriginal peoples in the first 10 years. When I think about what was done before 1990, I realize that that is what we were saying then as well.
Last night, I read the work done by the First Nations Human Resources Development Commission of Quebec. I had not had the opportunity to do that before. Once again, I felt that I was going back to the development concerns that were being dealt with back then. In our work, our desire—and I think that all parliamentarians are of the same mind— is to correct that.
How is it that things are not moving forward? For some Aboriginal communities, things have even moved backwards. At least, that is what I see. What is the problem? It is not just about the bucks.