Madam Speaker, the member talked about the Liberals doing things that are mainly and mostly symbolic. I would agree. This needs to be backed with funding and a real commitment that demonstrates a sense of urgency.
I have to go back to the Harper government. It cut over $60 million for indigenous organizations. John Duncan, from Vancouver Island, was the then aboriginal affairs minister. When he was put in that position in 2012, he said the Conservatives would change the funding model for aboriginal organizations and tribal councils, focusing on the areas that matched the Harper government's priorities. They were basically dictating the priorities of indigenous people instead of allowing them to define their own priorities.
I received a message from a councillor from the Tseshaht Nation, which I read this morning. In it he said that we need to send funding directly to communities. He said that he respects the work of some organizations but that the communities know what is best for their nations' languages. I have to agree with the councillor and indigenous organizations.
If the Conservatives were in government, would they retreat back to the Harper way of doing business and dictate to first nations how they should be doing business?