Mr. Speaker, I rise with two petitions today. The first is a petition signed by citizens from across the country calling on the government to extend funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which will expire on March 31 this year.
As the petition states, residential schools have caused incalculable physical and mental trauma to aboriginal people in this country, not only to residential school survivors themselves but to generations of first nations.
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is fostering important healing processes through counselling and cultural programs delivered in communities from coast to coast to coast. The Healing Our Spirit BC Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Society of Vancouver is one organization delivering valuable programs, thanks to this foundation.
I am pleased to stand in the House and present this petition requesting that funding for these vital healing programs be continued until the need for healing is ended; a day that is still sadly in the future.