Madam Speaker, I would like to commend the hon. member from across the way for so eloquently describing the plight of the people in her land. Truly, one of the profound tragedies in this country is to see the plight of the aboriginal people, a society that has been wracked in many cases by terrible levels of substance abuse, sexual abuse, interpersonal violence. Health care parameters, whichever way you wish to measure them, are some of the worst in our country.
If we look at the reasons behind this, one of the things one cannot help but look at is employment and being gainfully employed and being able to provide for yourself and your family. The ability to have gainful employment is integral to an individual's self-respect and self-pride. In turn, that imparts a pride and self-respect on the community at large.
A community and an individual cannot have self-pride and self-respect if it is given from somewhere else. They have to take it themselves. It cannot be given by a plethora of social programs from the federal government. These programs, while necessary, are not the answer.
The reason I say that is if you look at the terrible statistics the hon. member from the Northwest Territories has mentioned, you will find that these are mere symptoms of programs and an approach to the aboriginal people in this country that have indeed failed and failed dismally.
We have to work with aboriginal people to enable them to take care of themselves, to provide them with skills training and skills programs that will enable them to be gainfully employed. If we are able to do that, aboriginal people can stand on their own two feet and provide for themselves and their communities. Then, as we just mentioned, the incidence of sexual abuse, violence, STDs and infant mortality would come down.
We have to change our approach, change the direction in which we are looking. This would not be a replacement of essential social programs. Usually we do not have gainful employment in areas that are far removed and very desolate. Sometimes it is possible through the forestry and fishing industries but usually it is not the case.
It is important that aboriginal people be allowed to develop infrastructures and industries that can be self-sustaining in areas appropriate for them. Many northern and remote areas cannot develop sustainable industries that will provide for the needs and demands of people whether they are aboriginal or non-aboriginal.
We are pouring in money to provide for people to live in areas far removed from where they can take care of themselves and their families. This approach must stop because it simply cannot work. Again the duty of the federal government will be to provide aboriginal people with the skills training necessary for them to stand on their own two feet. It is absolutely integral to anybody's ability to have pride and self-respect and to society's ability to have pride and self-respect.
I hope the government does not pursue the same course it and previous governments have been taking for decades. The politically correct thing to say is that we will merely pour more money into social programs and social schemes for aboriginal people, but this will simply not work because it does not address the root causes of why the individuals were there in the first place.
I hope the government takes a very careful look at its programs in the future to try to bring down the terrible parameters among aboriginal people and provide them with the ability to stand on their own two feet in the future.