Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise tonight to speak to this issue once again. I spoke when the budget came down and I will repeat some of the points I made at that time.
I was thinking about the budget as I was preparing for tonight. I tried to think of an analogy of what the budget was. What it reminds me of is a paint gun, one of those guns that shoot balls of paint. It is a big burst, it splatters everywhere and it makes a hell of a mess. I would make the analogy of this budget to a paint gun. It was a big burst but not a lot of meaningful initiatives for people and for many it left one big mess.
I will quickly go through some of the broken promises to my and your province, Mr. Speaker. It has been profoundly impacted negatively. We heard early from my colleague about the literacy program. We have heard about the women's program. We have heard about the closing of the women's office in the city of Winnipeg, which had been such a huge support to women's groups there.
We have heard in previous times about the cancellation of the labour market partnership, a signed agreement with the Government of Canada, not with the Liberal Party, $129 million gone.
We have heard much about the court challenges program, in and of itself, and the merits of the program for women's groups, for other minority groups and for francophone groups. However, we have not talked about it in the context of the city of Winnipeg. It was one of the very few national programs in the city of Winnipeg and it too is gone.
On the homelessness initiative, we have heard much from members opposite about their great concern about crime and young people on the street. One of the members opposite even had the audacity to say that the streets of Winnipeg were, and I really do not want to repeat it, filled with uncharitable and unkind people who were lawless and involved in crime.
At the same time as they talk about crime, building jails, putting people behind bars and increasing the sentences, they are also cancelling funding for a major youth initiative that keeps young people off the streets. What one hand does, the other hand does not know. This has had a significant impact on my community and what it has done there.
We have heard a lot about child care. My colleague who preceded me spoke about the impact of the loss of the child care program and the ineffectiveness of the $100 a month to families. We have heard much from members opposite about the importance of having choice.
I allege that one cannot have choice if there is no choice. What the government has basically done is removed choice for parents, the choice to go back to work, the choice to go back to school, the choice of where a child might be cared for.
In the city of Winnipeg, 80% of the centres have waiting lists. The province of Manitoba was slated to receive $176 million over five years. That program was cancelled. We now know, under the current allocation, the province of Manitoba will receive an annual $9 million grant, obviously considerably less than $174 million that would have been in place for the province of Manitoba. We also know the $100 a month might provide three days of child care for a family in the city of Winnipeg.
The city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba had a well laid out plan for the development of child care, for the training and development of a skilled workforce. It has gone and there is much challenge and struggle to maintain that.
We also have to look at child care, not simply as a social issue, but as an economic issue. Women cannot go to work if they do not have the option. I have heard recently about women who have been leaving their employment because of their inability to access good, safe child care for their children. We have to be wary of that.
One of the very large disappointments in the province of Manitoba is the funding, or the lack thereof, for the remediation of Lake Winnipeg. For many, Lake Winnipeg is a symbol. I have heard many call it their beloved Lake Winnipeg. It is a form of economic development. It is a place for recreation. It is a place for memories. It is a place for history. It is beautiful. It is an inland ocean, but unfortunately, it needs considerable remediation.
The previous government made a commitment for the restoration of Lake Winnipeg for $120 million. What we have now is a small sum allocated now for the clean up of Lake Winnipeg, which one of my colleagues said might be enough to rake the beaches. If we are to clean up Lake Winnipeg, let us not do it in a messy way. Let us do it in a way that will have a real impact and outcome and that will serve for generations to come.
The issue I want to focus on, because it has a profound impact on my province and on Canadians from coast to coast to coast, is what the government has done or has not done for aboriginal people.
I will not belabour the cancelling of the Kelowna accord. We have talked about it in the House. We have talked about it in committee. It has been talked about in legislatures across the country. First and foremost, that has had a profound impact and disappointment. Kelowna had become a symbol of hope for many, and that hope has gone.
When we hear the minister opposite speak about funding for aboriginal peoples, on budget day, March 19, I heard the minister, in the course of three hours, give three different figures. The budget document said $9.1 billion. He later said $10.1 billion. At a scrum outside the House, he used the figure $11 billion.
The moneys used or portrayed as being used for aboriginal people are being provided as misinformation or not factual information to Canadians. What other group in Canada has the amount spent in its area factored out to a per person cost? We do not hear any other group singled out as how much we spend per individual in that group. That is quite shameful.
We have been hearing that they are taking great initiatives in aboriginal communities, but what the minister is not telling us is that he is taking dollars committed for one community and reallocating them for another community.
My colleague, the member for Kenora, told me just yesterday of two projects being cancelled in his community, one for a school and one for a treatment facility. It was a reallocation of moneys that probably went to Pikangikum.
I want to quote what some of the aboriginal leader said. Angus Toulouse said:
It is scary.... f people aren't heard, if claims aren't addressed...you can bet there's going to be much more confrontation and barricades.
I want to quote John Ibbitson the columnist with the Globe and Mail when the budget came down. His comment was, and I think it is important:
The Conservatives lack the political courage to confront, head on, the overriding social policy challenge of our time: eliminating aboriginal poverty on and off reserve.
This truly is the biggest challenge facing Canadians within Canada. We have seen no commitment from the government. We have seen smoke and mirrors with figures. We have seen money taken from one pot and allocated to another pot, ostensibly in the guise of doing something and not talking about the community being left behind.
I would say that this is the greatest shame. From a high water point 18 months ago between the Government of Canada and first nations and aboriginal people across this country, we are at an all time low, a low that is now mobilizing aboriginal people across this country to a day of protest, a day of action, in order to show their displeasure, their disappointment, and the profound lack of hope that aboriginal people now have as it relates to this government.