Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your presentations. I found them very moving. Certainly, as somebody who represents northern Manitoba, many of us know of the important work of Sisters In Spirit and are deeply concerned about the current situation and the fact that $10 million, as we've heard today, remains to be allocated. But of course there's a serious lack of consultation.
A number of questions, similar to what we've heard, came to my mind as you made presentations. While I heard your presentations, I heard the voices of friends of mine, of women I've grown up with, who are in our communities speaking out about these issues. There are the posters of missing women on the highways around our region and in our public places. While a silence has been broken, a silence still exists when it comes to finding answers and dealing with the root issues.
I believe one of the themes that came up in your presentations about the comprehensive nature of not just dealing with violence once it's happened, certainly in terms of research, was the prevention aspect. I would like to get all of your thoughts—Ms. Tucker, you were the first to bring it up—on the question of the unsustainability of programming, with a particular focus on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
As a passionate advocate of the need for the AHF and its programming in the region that I represent and all across Canada, I've been very concerned about this government's approach to the AHF. I'm also concerned about comments that were made today that the money from the AHF is now with Health Canada. Community organizations that have shut their doors on the ground will tell you there is no money for these kinds of programs, that Health Canada employees do not exist to pick up the slack, and that Health Canada has no plan to pick up the programming that was implemented by the AHF.
But what I would like to hear is your understanding of the importance of healing programming; the need to bring out the residential school experience; the need to understand that this isn't just about making an apology but about listening to communities and allowing communities to create their own programming; and your thoughts on whether or not the federal government ought to be supporting this kind of comprehensive programming as a way of also dealing with the issue of violence experienced by aboriginal women.