Mr. Speaker, I wish to bring to the attention of this House the shameful way the federal government is handling the approval of project grants under the Canada Millennium Partnership Program.
Next year, the year 2000 AD, marks the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of the Vikings in Newfoundland. However, the Millennium Bureau of Canada has refused to fund an application from the Viking Millennium International Symposium. We could not find a project more millennium related than a 1000th anniversary, but still it was turned down.
Indeed, of the 301 projects approved under phase II of the program, only four were approved from Newfoundland, less than 1% of the total funding, even though Newfoundland comprises 2% of the population of Canada.
This simply is not good enough. I call upon the federal government to rectify the situation immediately.