Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for raising the example of the school in Winnipeg; the Children of the Earth High School has been very successful. There are numerous examples of indigenous people leading the development of curriculum and programming across our country. Of course, on reserve the situation is very different because of the unequal funding that first nations have to deal with.
It is appalling that first nations youth, per capita, receive either half or maybe two-thirds of the same funding that off-reserve youth have to get an education. First nations youth who live in Nelson House, an hour away from Thompson my home community, receive about two-thirds the amount of money to get the same education that kids one hour down the road receive to get that same education. We know that the results show that first nations do not have the same supports, that they drop out of school earlier, that they do not succeed the way other youth do. It has everything to do with the systemic underfunding that the current federal government and previous federal governments have imposed on first nations.
I reiterate, if the current government really cares about first nations youth, it could start right now by fixing the schools that are falling apart, and by investing in every first nations youth the way any Canadian would expect.