Mr. Speaker, the previous government of course had a huge agenda. Many very important bills got through.
I agree with the member that it is unfortunate the government was terminated prematurely by an election call when a couple of very important things were in the midst of happening. One, of course, was this particular bill. As I mentioned during my remarks, we tried several times to bring it forward. It was not brought forward just recently. We tried very hard to get this particular bill brought forward.
Even more catastrophic losses from that premature election call were the day care program, as I have talked about, and the Kelowna agreement. These were instrumental programs.
The day care program was instrumental for families. As I mentioned, in my riding I have already had some very critical cases of low income mothers who now are in very serious and precarious positions. The funding they expected has not come through. Of course, the day care program, into which we were going to put $10 billion, is not there. There are no major subsidies for day care in my area, which might have made it possible for these women to send their children to day care and to remain in the workplace so they could have a reasonable family life.
Of course the Kelowna agreement, for which $5 billion was set aside, was a historic agreement between the first nations people of this country and the nation of Canada, not a particular political party, but the nation of Canada. When there is one group of people in the country that is disadvantaged, that has lower achievements in a number of areas such as successful childbirth, jobs and education, we can remedy that inequity when those people themselves have come up with solutions.
The Government of Canada, the premiers, the first nations leaders from across Canada and the chiefs of first nations across Canada all got together in a remarkable effort that took over 18 months. They actually came up with a solution. They actually came up with some peace and harmony, which is not occurring in Caledonia, for instance. It was a great move forward, and when the agreement this nation made was abrogated, I think it was a very sad moment for Canada.