Mr. Speaker, our region is struggling and nowhere is this more evident than the rates of child poverty. According to a recent Campaign 2000 report, 63% of children in our region live in poverty. That is unacceptable in a country as wealthy as Canada. These are not just numbers; these are lives impacted by crushing poverty every single day. This poverty is directly linked to the poverty of their mothers, women's poverty. The reality is not by accident; it is the result of Liberal and Conservative political agendas that have sought to exploit, dispossess and marginalize indigenous women, their children and their nations.
The federal government must change course and take on the factors that lead to this poverty, from making healthy foods accessible to tackling the housing crisis, from ending gender-based violence to funding child care, from expanding employment and training to building all-weather roads, from creating gainful employment to ensuring the consent of first nations for development on their territories.
I stand with the many women in our north and across the country who are demanding better for themselves, their children and our collective future.