Madam Speaker, it might have been a slip of the tongue, but my friend said, “$6.1 billion”. I will accept that first figure over the million that he had mentioned and I will take that back to the various groups.
The only point that I would make is that sometimes there is a tendency within Ottawa to say that Ottawa knows best. The programs are very top-down. The region that I know, the northwest of British Columbia, and I would say many other regions in coastal British Columbia and the Interior, without any funding at all, with an aggressive and oppositional government for many years, they have been able to create vibrant, beautiful language programs. We should pick up on the successes that exist and allow for maximum flexibility on the ground because there cannot be a cookie-cutter approach.
I would also note, and I am sure he has heard the concerns from Inuit, that aspects of the bill are not yet meeting the northern needs. Again, a language program that might work in Nunavut is not going to work well in Montreal or Prince Rupert. I would suggest that, when the government is looking to design these programs, it take direction from the communities whose very livelihoods are on the line and whose very cultures and histories are at stake.