Mr. Speaker, I have been speaking with families on the James Bay coast whose loved ones are living in unheated tents, thanks to the fact that the government has abandoned basic infrastructure needs and left them abandoned in a sewage crisis.
What we are seeing with H1N1 is not a surprise. This was seen coming for some time. The World Health Organization was focused on this. In our first nations communities we are seeing the return of tuberculosis on northern reserves. Our young people are dying at young ages from all kinds of ailments, from contamination and from a lack of medical services. They were the most vulnerable.
The government saw what happened this spring with H1N1 hitting the reserves in northern Manitoba. It knew what was coming and yet in our communities there is fear because they feel that once again they have been abandoned. They are the most susceptible to H1N1, because we have 15 and 20 people living in two bedroom homes.
Does the hon. member see this as part of a larger pattern of abandonment of isolated first nations communities by the government?