Mr. Speaker, just on that follow-up I can say that this is a government that receives fossil awards.
In June, I put a question to the Conservative government, which was how it could claim that Canada was a leader in maternal health if aboriginal women in this country do not have access to the support they need. I was asking because we had just learned that a maternal health program managed by first nations on 14 Manitoba reserves was going to lose all of its funding despite assessments showing the program is very effective.
Like many other Canadians, I was having a difficult time balancing the claims of the government with the evidence I was presented with. Naturally the Minister of Health replied with general statistics related to the delivery of aboriginal health care, which we know is a federal and not a provincial responsibility. However, the numbers were related to general health care and not maternal health.
It was like answering a question about car repairs with a statement of fact about the money used to purchase gasoline. That is the way the government operates and we see it time and again. What it did not do was explain how a program that was delivering results on 14 Manitoba reserves was being cut and also why.
Part of the discussion that was making things less than clear was the government commitment to maternal health overseas and the wild government claims that New Democrats somehow do not support that notion. Again, this is not only intentionally wrong in both spirit and fact, but it also leaves those communities in Manitoba struggling for answers when they felt they had managed to get it right on this front.
Let me be crystal clear. The NDP fully supports maternal health overseas. What we do not support is the government's piecemeal attempt at maternal health. It is an approach that denies funding on a political and ideological basis to organizations providing essential services to women and their children. Women in Canada need support too.
According to Statistics Canada, the infant mortality rate among first nations in Manitoba is approximately twice that of the general population. That is completely unacceptable and cutting programs that can challenge that statistic is unacceptable too.
Will the minister reverse the decision and reinstate funding for this vital maternal health program?