Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary and I sat on the heritage committee and worked on Motion No. 103. While I am happy to see in the budget some acknowledgement of the urgent action required to address the issue of the rise in hate crime incidents, the budget will embark on a consultation process: $23 million dedicated I guess to consult about a national strategy to address the issue of systemic discrimination and all forms of religious discrimination.
Given the government's history on consultation, it does not give me a whole lot of assurances. We saw that with electoral reform. The government embarked on an extensive consultation process, only to decide it would do whatever it was going to do in any event.
What assurances can the parliamentary secretary give the House and, more important, Canadians that there will actually be a real national strategy to address the issue of racial discrimination and all forms of religious discrimination?