Madam Speaker, anyone who would suggest that homelessness does not go in line with housing is dreaming in Technicolor. Certainly there are situations where that may not be the key issue, but I can say without any doubt in my mind the reason that a number of first nations people leave their first nations to go into cities and elsewhere is the lack of proper housing in first nation communities.
If the government were truly committed to addressing the problem of homelessness, why is the minister responsible for homelessness not being given a budget? What is she supposed to do? Are we supposed to look out there on the street and say make it go away? It will not happen. The crisis will get much worse if there is not a serious effort to address the problem.
By downloading social housing and not supporting social housing programs we are increasing the crisis that much more. There will be that many more people on the streets.