Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to be here to discuss and bring back to this House a very important question that I asked of the government some months ago. I will repeat the final question. When will the federal government partner with provinces and first nations to put an end to the unacceptable living conditions that aboriginal people in Canada face?
As the member of Parliament for Churchill, I have the honour of representing 33 first nations. In some of these first nations, in fact in most of them and certainly in parts of all of them, there are people who are truly living in third world conditions. It is a message that I get day in and day out in the work that I do in northern Manitoba and the reality that so many first nations face across Canada. As we know, that is unacceptable in a country as wealthy as ours. The fact of the matter is that there is work being done on the ground to address their poor living conditions, including non-existent housing and the need to access health care. However, that work is not being done by all of the partners that need to be around the table. Notably, the missing partner is the federal government.
I will address the need to have the federal government play a true partnering role with the province and first nations when it comes, for example, to the all-weather road on the east side of Manitoba, a truly tremendous undertaking providing jobs for first nations in the area. For the first time in history, roads will be built between first nations that have been isolated, allowing them access to materials and health care and education services to a much greater extent. Unfortunately, the federal government has not been at the table to support this critical initiative.
I will also mention education. The province has made serious commitments with respect to the University College of the North. Unfortunately, the federal government has also been absent in that respect. In fact, it was due to the efforts of the late Jack Layton some years ago that there was at least some federal funding for the UCN at the time. Unfortunately, under the current government we have not seen a commitment. We hope that the federal government will shore up its commitment to education by supporting such critical initiatives as the University College of the North, but also by investing in K-12 education, recognizing that institutions like the Frontier Collegiate Institute in Cranberry Portage require federal funding for the first nations students sent there. The federal government ought to be part of a partnership to support primary and secondary education among aboriginal youth.
We also hope that the federal government will be part of a job creation strategy. The provincial government has been doing that kind of work with first nations, but unfortunately what we have seen from the federal government are damaging cuts when it comes to employment insurance and a total absence from the table when it comes to economic development that would benefit first nations and eradicate the third world living conditions so many of them face. That is the kind of action we would like to see in northern Manitoba and across Canada when it comes to making a difference for first nations people.