Mr. Speaker, I believe that question was put in good faith despite the condescending tone. I will take no lessons from that member given the length of time I have worked on these very important files. Nonetheless, I am pleased to rise to speak to the question by the hon. member.
The welfare of first nation children is a priority for our government. We believe that the best way to address the complex issues surrounding first nation child and family services is through collaboration with first nations, provinces and territories.
In 2007, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada announced the first of several incremental investments for an enhanced prevention focused approach. These investments provided more than $98.1 million over five years to implement a tripartite accountability framework on a new enhanced prevention approach to child and family services with Alberta first nations.
We are taking a similar course in terms of education and our relationship with communities through tripartite agreements, so that we can offer better education programs and services toward improving education outcomes on reserve. This is a priority of the government and the record is there to show it.
Today, our government continues to invest additional resources in education and child and family services. The funding is designed to provide increased flexibility to service providers and to implement culturally appropriate education and prevention programs and protection services that will help improve outcomes for children, youth and their families in their schools and communities.
Education and child welfare is an area of provincial or territorial jurisdiction wherein the provinces and territories have legislative authority. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada is compelled and happy to continue to move forward with all of its stakeholders toward improving education outcomes on reserve as well as child and family services.
We continue to invest significant resources in federal programs that extend to child care benefits, child tax credits, the Canada child tax benefit, the disability benefit, maternity and parental benefits and the child care expense deduction, sensitive to the issues of many of the isolated and remote communities in the north.
The issues that affect the quality of life of first nation children are a shared responsibility. While progress has been made, it will take continued efforts of government at all levels and the first nations themselves to achieve long-term progress.
We will continue to work in partnership with provinces and first nation communities on both education and an enhanced prevention focused approach to improve outcomes for first nation children and their families in education and child and family services.