Mr. Speaker, federal funding for Canada's drug strategy will end this month. The program provided thousands of Canadians with the education and prevention tools they needed to battle problems with drug and
alcohol abuse. Across the country youth groups, counselling services and programs for aboriginal people are being closed down.
In Yukon the youth empowerment and success drop-in centre will lose its core funding as a result of this decision by the Liberal government. Youth workers in Carmacks, Yukon and other locations from coast to coast are threatened with losing their jobs. The young people who benefit from these programs will have nowhere to turn.
Ending successful programs for young people is yet one more example of this Liberal government's deficit cutting with no vision.
Successful programs which help Canadians be more self-sufficient and productive should be maintained and not ended. I urge the government to reconsider its decision and make the lives of young people a priority.