Mr. Speaker, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to ask the member a question. I have been on committee with her before and I know that she is dedicated to trying to resolve some issues.
However, she comes from an area where there was a residential school in her riding, and since the residential school apology there are still a lot of wrongs being done when it comes to our first nations.
I met with a couple of people this morning, Ron Beaver and Roy Thunder, who came to talk about the native alcohol drug assessment program and the fact that they are not within the wage parity with others. For example, the wage for someone who works on reserve as an addictions counsellor is about $35,437, yet in the health care bargaining unit in an Ontario institution it is $47,736.
Does the member not believe that they should have wage parity, and why is the government always pushing back when it comes to providing proper funding, especially when it comes to the health care of first nations?