Mr. Speaker, drug, alcohol and solvent abuse are serious problems in many first nations communities. Treatment and healing centres are vitally important in the fight against substance abuse.
We now know that Health Canada knew about the mismanagement going on at the Virginia Fontaine Treatment Centre, long before it became public, but kept signing the cheques. Meanwhile, other first nations were struggling to provide treatment and healing and could not get a dime from the department.
Could the health minister tell us why he waited until the mismanagement became public before he cut the funding? Why did he allow the waste of first nations health dollars to go on for so long?