Madam Speaker, thank you very much for being here so late tonight. I know it is close to midnight, and I want to thank you for the work that you are doing tonight by staying so late and overseeing the House of Commons.
The reason I am here is in relation to a question I had regarding the homelessness tragedy that is taking place across Canada. In particular, my question was related to what is happening in Port Alberni, in my riding and on the streets of Port Alberni where we are losing lives. People are losing hope.
We have an overrepresentation of indigenous people living on the streets, and that is what I want to speak to tonight. Over two-thirds of the people living on the streets of Port Alberni are indigenous. The Liberal government's promise to allocate and build 3,000 beds to deal with the homelessness crisis across Canada is not nearly enough. People are living without shelter. They are living in makeshift tents. They are living in public parks.
They are trying to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an opioid crisis that is taking place, a public health emergency here in British Columbia. The mental health implications are dire for this population. Their spirits are often simply broken. Many of them are suffering from systemic racism from public institutions, and are often struggling to overcome multi-generational trauma caused by colonial policies, like the Indian residential schools that have had a huge impact.
People are desperate. Sadly, too many are turning to suicide, to violence against others, or to substance misuse. It is shameful that these conditions persist in urban communities across our country, whether it is in small rural communities or in large cities. This is not the Canada that we want it to be. We must address these very serious and important issues. It should not be the future of our children.
The 3,000 beds I cited earlier, which the Liberal government has committed to, deal with the hard to house, those who are at the lowest barriers, and who need assistance and support services. We need these investments critically in our community. We need this massive investment, along with reforms for federal drug policies, which create stigma and a fear of ending up in the criminal justice system rather than in the health and social support system, where care and help could be provided.
We are looking at proposals to help deal with these issues, but in the meantime lives are being lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, to the opioid public health emergency, to death by suicide, to violence against women and girls, and to an endless cycle of urban indigenous poverty that has to be broken.
We are calling on the government to take action. We ask ourselves, “Where do we start?” There is no question in my mind that we need to start by implementing the calls to action from the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry, implementing the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, creating and resourcing an indigenous-led housing program, creating and resourcing an indigenous-led board to investigate violence against indigenous people by the criminal justice system, and ensuring shared decision-making related to policies affecting the rights of indigenous people in their communities.
As I stated, in my riding, I have been working, supporting and advocating for funding under the rapid housing initiative. I have been writing letters and speaking to ministers whenever I have the opportunity, including the parliamentary secretary tonight. I really appreciate him taking the time to talk to me about an application that is going in, that I will not get into the details of. However, the importance of—