Mr. Speaker, the Ontario First Nations Economic Developers Association was promised in January that it would receive core funding from Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, but still no funds have arrived and the project manager has added an ultimatum.
Let us look at this for a minute. To receive the funds, it must report on the project. It cannot start the project until it receives the funds. What kind of practice is this? Does the government not want first nations to become economically independent? The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development is holding the association in a Catch-22 with no funding.
Why are the Conservatives so dead set on making first nations funding a Catch-22? Will they release the funds?