Mr. Chair, our government had an aboriginal affairs committee of cabinet where we dealt with these things together in order to make things happen, like the Kelowna accord.
Over the past six years there have been programs to build, operate and maintain infrastructure on reserves. There is no Canadian watching tonight who has not seen the scenes from Attawapiskat and 100 other communities in that shape, which received an average of $1.2 billion annually, but budget 2013 allocates $7 billion over the next 10 years.
Why has the minister decided to cut approximately $345 million per year from the 2012 funding levels and $500 million from the six-year average for first nations infrastructure programs?