Mr. Speaker, the member said that the government works with first nations. What the current government has been doing is actually picking a fight with first nations. Whether it is the NCBR, whether it is education, whether it is housing, or whether it is water, certainly first nations are not getting the support from the government, which is really shirking its fiduciary responsibility. It is not respecting the commitment it made through the residential school apology.
What first nations children need is more help, not less, and the current government has been giving them less. Children on first nations in Ontario have a poverty rate of 40% compared to 15% for children in the rest of the population. Two out of five first nations children in Ontario are living in poverty, which is no rallying cry to cut services aimed specifically at doing something about that. The programs being cut do not cost a lot of money, but they make a real difference to the children they serve. School food programs, daycare programs, parenting programs, food banks and other supports are the last safety net for families with little to go on.
The drastic cut to the NCBR guarantees that some programs will not survive. Those that do will be severely scaled back. A direct line can be drawn from budget cuts to this outcome, since money is being moved to other programs with actual budget increases. The department has taken money away from poor children to pay those costs. In fact, we are paying for years of capped education costs that the Liberals enacted and that the Conservative government continued.
When will the government stand up for first nations children suffering under an unacceptable rate of poverty? Why not begin by reinstating full funding for the national child benefit reinvestment?