Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning.
Mr. Miller, you said you had increased the number of investigations in indigenous communities. This morning, the Radio-Canada program Espaces autochtones reported that Gilles Bérubé, a Lac-Saint-Jean businessman, got rich on the backs of first nations communities in Quebec. The investigative program Enquête revealed that, for over 20 years, this unscrupulous man used Corporation Waskahegen, which received funding from the governments of Quebec and Canada, to build a real estate empire at the expense of his tenants—indigenous people living off reserve as well as Métis people. It's outrageous, despicable, sickening! I can hardly find the words to describe it I'm so heartbroken for those indigenous and Métis people living off reserve.
Here's a real example of how this scandal is affecting people's lives. Take the case of a woman from Essipit, on the north shore, who lives in a housing unit run by Corporation Waskahegen. The unit is in need of repair; all she was asking was to have her windows replaced so she wouldn't be cold anymore. The company gave her all kinds of ridiculous excuses for why it couldn't do the work. The woman froze all winter long because a crooked businessman preferred to line his pockets with the money of his fellow citizens than to show some humanity. He used our money to do that, and we are responsible, sir.
The government has to answer to that woman and to the rest of Gilles Bérubé's victims. Mr. Miller, what are you going to do so that this woman from Essipit doesn't have to spend another winter freezing in her own home and so that something like this never happens again?