Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Forgive me for being late. We should go on strike, on Parliament Hill, in order to obtain adequate transportation services.
I live in an area where First Nations account for a third of the population. We have a vision in Quebec. I represent the riding of Abitibi— Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, that extends all the way to Labrador. My riding neighbours on that of my colleague, Todd. We have aboriginal populations that are rich. However, there is something of a vicious circle. We invest money and we see the department realize that the fact that it put money in did not make things move forward. The situation remained the same and the provinces are practically accused of having intervened in such a way that the money served to increase costs rather than direct services to children.
In our neck of the woods, in rich communities, at 4:30 or 5 o'clock, we see young people with a beer bottle in their hand and a joint between their lips. We ask them what they are doing there, we tell them that they will not be able to go to school like that, and their response is to ask us why they would bother going there.
I am talking about a vicious circle. It is fine to hand out money, but are we creating a vision for the future for these children? We have to begin with the parents. We have to give them a job, create industries in their communities. They need a model, because they have none. In Quebec, it is difficult to talk on behalf of the other provinces, because our model is that of integration, compared with the model in the rest of Canada, which is one of multiculturalism. To my mind, that makes a difference.
For example, we have native friendship centres. There are day-care centres and we decided to integrate First Nations children with non-Aboriginal children, and the result is unbelievable. However, there still remains the problem of a vision for the future for young people.
Ms. Polak, I would like you to explain to me the cost increase for your province. You probably encountered that as well. Mr. Richard, you mentioned the follow-up to funding for children. I would invite you to explain that, afterwards.