Mr. Speaker, it is true that one can go to any community in Canada and see very critical situations where local communities have devised the solutions that are necessary but which lack, in many cases, the federal resources such as an infrastructure program. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has been calling for a nationally shared infrastructure program to do exactly the kinds of things the member describes.
I also visited communities in the far north of Manitoba with my colleague from Churchill. These communities basically had people living in homes with no sewage or water hook-up. It is unbelievable to think that this still exists in Canada today.
I would agree with the hon. member that these kinds of basic necessities are things that should have been addressed not only in this budget, but because of the massive cutbacks that we have seen since 1993 we now have a crisis situation in many of these smaller communities and certainly in the larger cities as well. We still see people who are trying to get by even without the very daily essentials of shelter, water, adequate housing, adequate income, food and so on.