Madam Speaker, we are not against helping the needy. The government should provide help based on need, not on anything else.
We are not proposing cuts to essential services that are provided to the needy aboriginal people who have been suffering under previous governments. Their unemployment rate is high. Their health care is low. They have been suffering in so many ways: drug and alcohol abuse is high, education standards and levels are low, the standard of living is low. They need help and we do not deny that.
Government departments are advocating that money be given to the leadership in those communities where corruption has been reported. The problem is with wasteful spending which promotes corruption in those communities. Taxpayers' dollars do not reach the needy people.
I will give members an example. Two years ago during the middle of winter a first nation lady came to my office. She told me that a window in her house was broken for a long time. She wanted to fix the window so that she could protect her family from the bitter cold and storms. She approached the leadership in her band but the money was not given to her. That is where the problem is. If there was no corruption and the rules were based on fairness and need, the money would have been given to her so that she could fix her window and protect her family from the cold winter season.
I have sat on the public accounts committee for quite some time. I have seen the auditor general time and again list the wastage and missed priorities in the Indian affairs department and in the treatment of aboriginal people. There have also been many problems reported by the auditor general on the health care front.
I am not against helping the needy. I am against enshrining in our law a criminal justice system based on race. That is wrong. I and my party are against that.