House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2015, with 28% of the vote.
Aboriginal Affairs September 27th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I can quote a recent letter from an Inuit-owned food retailer, the Stanton Group, which says:
In the first year of the NNC [nutrition north Canada] program, we have seen savings of up to 35 per cent on perishable foods such as fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, meat and eggs: savings that have been passed on to northern residents.
What northern Canadians do not have an appetite for is an NDP carbon tax on everything from soup to nuts, meat and milk, as well as everything else.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the current government has made incredible new investments in quality-of-life measures for first nations on reserves. We spent incredible amounts on the water and waste water systems. We injected major moneys into stimulus spending for housing on first nations reserves. We have covered the gamut. We are investing in new school infrastructure and new school programming. We have set our priorities along with collaborations with our partners, and the system is working as intended.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, nutrition north Canada was a program that used to subsidize air freight and now subsidizes food at the retail level, nutritious perishable food for northerners. We are spending $60 million on the program in 103 communities. The evidence is now in that we have changed eating habits so that people are choosing healthier foods. The evidence is in that the price of those foods is reduced. The program is working and these complaints are illegitimate.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the NDP is full of overblown rhetoric. We have a letter that was published today from the Stanton Group. This is an Inuit-owned food retailer in the Northwest Territories. In the first year of the nutrition north program, we have seen savings of up to 35% on perishable foods such as fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, meat and eggs, savings that have been passed on to northern residents. In our experience, the nutrition north Canada program is working well. That speaks for itself.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, we had a housing issue in Attawapiskat. In very short order, we put 22 new homes into that community. We had a long-standing call for a new school in Attawapiskat. That school is currently under construction. Things are moving in the right direction. We even had a petition going around the community asking for retention of the third party manager, who we took out of the community as a result of pressure from the leadership and the reduced need for the manager's presence.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the health and safety of first nation community members is of primary concern to our government. That is why we developed, in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations, a comprehensive national strategy to address mould problems and create healthier homes in first nation societies.
Since we formed government, we have built or renovated approximately 30,000 homes on reserves. That has been growing annually, and we have done 3,000 major renovations every year.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, most of this programming is delivered through the friendship centres. The executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres has called our current approach the right approach. He went on to say it shows a level of understanding that if we want to do it better we need to engage the people who the program is for.
That is what we are doing.
Aboriginal Affairs June 21st, 2012
Mr. Speaker, today I was at the Odawa Friendship Centre. I met with the national president. I met with the executive director. We are concerned about this issue. We are working with the executive director. We are at meetings this afternoon, official-to-official, and we will be realigning the program to meet our current needs for skills training development and job readiness for aboriginal youth. We are putting the train back on the tracks.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act June 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the member's speech reminds me of that saying “this animal has four legs, therefore it is a cow”. Suggesting that we are imposing a larger burden of red tape on first nations is a ridiculous notion.
In fact, it is very obvious that the member did not listen to my speech. It is very obvious the member has no idea what is in the legislation. It is very obvious that the member does not know we made an announcement within the last few days about a single reporting mechanism for first nations that actually created less paperwork. That is without the bill. With the bill, it is the very same paperwork as they do now.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that in December 2010 the Assembly of First Nations endorsed the accountability and transparency measures that were implicit in Bill C-575. That is adopted within this bill. There is first nations support for the bill, contrary to the member's statements.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act June 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, we do have support for this legislation from first nations.
I would also remind the member that there was a motion at the Assembly of First Nations in December 2010, which was passed. I cannot remember if it was passed unanimously, but it was strongly supported, that they would voluntarily move into this era of accountability by voluntary measures.
It has now been a significant period of time since December 2010. It appears that there has been very little movement in this direction. We think this legislation is essential to move things where they need to be. It is a very simple exercise in that regard.