Mr. Speaker, the member for Timmins—James Bay is absolutely correct. We know that he has led the fight on schools for first nations children.
What is interesting is that we hear the government continue to talk about accountability and transparency, yet the Parliamentary Budget Officer has to threaten to go to the courts in order to get the information that he requires to do his job.
The member is correct that the government and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has not demonstrated accountability back to first nation communities. Therefore, they make arbitrary decisions about where money will go and how it will be transferred without explaining how they are managing that money to first nations. There is not that accountability and transparency relationship from AANDC back to first nation communities, so often people are left proposing capital projects for schools or for water systems and then year after year these projects keep getting moved along the chain and people do not know why.
If we want to talk about accountability and transparency, let us make sure that people understand what the money is for, how it will be spent and when the community can expect to receive it.