Mr. Speaker, is the hon. member aware that over the last 20 years spending through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has increased by some 750 per cent, yet conditions in the communities that native people live in have essentially remained the same?
Is the hon. member aware that within the last four years DIAND has committed $1 billion toward native economic development? The auditor general's report last year clearly shows that the effect of that spending has been absolutely negligible in terms of its desired goals. In other words, the demand for social services continues to rise on a steady trend, the unemployment levels continue to rise on a steady trend, and the demand for social assistance increases in real dollar terms. This massive spending by the federal government has been an abject failure.
Would the hon. member agree that maybe it is time to review what the goals of the spending programs of DIAND were designed to do, whether or not they are actually achieving the goals, and whether the whole initiative the federal government has been engaged in for the last 25 years has been completely wrongheaded?