Mr. Speaker, it is important to remember that it is not only all the people these organizations and centres are serving. It is the employees of these organizations who will be losing their jobs, many of them drawn from the very communities in so desperate need of services and of healing.
The other issue that is important to remember is that the story of the residential schools is a story that left a deep mistrust of the Canadian government and its institutions. Part of that healing is in empowering and in returning the trust in the possibilities to heal offered by the government. However, that cannot happen by telling someone to show up at a health care centre or to be served by Canadian doctors or non-natives. It needs to be centred on the communities themselves, healing and building for themselves. That is the trust we have to restore, and that is the only way the federal government can truly help aboriginals in need of healing.