Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and add some thoughts on an issue that has always been of great importance to the Government of Canada and, in particular, to the Prime Minister.

We have talked about the whole issue of reconciliation and how, as a government, we have ensured significant budget commitments over the years, but also legislative actions in a very tangible way. I am going to expand on that shortly. Before I do that, I do not want anyone who might be following this debate to believe that the Conservatives are genuinely concerned about the report itself at all. All one needs to do is take a look at the previous member's comments on the report and then reflect on what was being debated earlier today. I would suggest that the whole concept of character assassination has something in common with this. This is more about a multi-million dollar game the Conservatives have played for many weeks, at a great cost.

Substantial legislation is waiting to be debated, both from the government's perspective and from the perspective of private members. However, instead of having that form of debate, the Conservatives continue to bring in concurrence reports to fill time because they are running out of things to say on their privilege motions. Here they have taken a particular issue that has always been important to the government. At the end of the day, I question their motivation for choosing to use this issue as a political game to add to the multi-million dollar filibuster that we have been witnessing for many weeks and, unfortunately, in all likelihood, for many days to come. I look at this from a perspective of lost opportunities and why we need to move on.

When I think of the issue at hand, I think of individuals like Cindy Woodhouse. I think of the passing of Mr. Sinclair, an individual, second to no other in Manitoba, who brought forward the debate on indigenous reconciliation for all Canadians and the important role we all have to play, including here in the House. I was at the funeral, as members from all political parties were.

When the TRC report came out, the leader of the Liberal Party at the time, because it was back in 2015, made the commitment to act on every one of those 94 calls for action. We have seen significant gains. Many have taken the form of legislation that has passed, such as a statutory holiday, indigenous languages and legislation dealing with children. We have also seen significant financial commitments, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $400-plus million toward indigenous entrepreneurs and others since 2015 to encourage partnerships. In the 2024 budget, in fact, we committed $350 million to dealing with issues to increase access to capital.

I think of my home province of Manitoba and the city of Winnipeg, and the only way we can hit the potential that our province has in the federation is to see reconciliation work. A part of that is to recognize the entrepreneurs and the workers and how, as a national government, we can contribute to it. One of the first things we took initiative on, for example, was the issue of Freedom Road, something Shoal Lake 40 was asking for for many years. Stephen Harper, throughout those years when the leader of the Conservative Party was a cabinet minister with Stephen Harper, said, “No, the federal government does not support Freedom Road.”

It took a change in government. It was not until the current Prime Minister formed the cabinet, and with the support of the national Liberal caucus, that we ultimately saw financing for Freedom Road. Freedom Road has had a profoundly positive impact for Shoal Lake 40. It is not because of Ottawa but more because of the leadership from within the Shoal Lake 40 reserve. These are the people who deserve the credit. What we did as government was recognize the potential and get behind the individual chief and council to ultimately enable it.

We have seen other very successful projects at Shoal Lake 40. They are significant projects, all of which, I would suggest, are indigenous led, from the companies to the workers to the quality that we see, including the water treatment facility. For the community's size, it is a world-class facility, which is there today because of indigenous-led companies and the chief and council. We could also talk about the twinning of Highway 17.

I look at individuals like Sharon Redsky, who often affords me the opportunity to better understand indigenous issues, especially around children and social enterprises and the potential for charitable groups and indigenous organizations to contribute to reconciliation. These are individuals. I think of Chief Kevin Redsky and the leadership the chief and council provide, and how that is making a difference. We as a government have supported that leadership and those developments.

I would suggest that the Conservatives are introducing the report today not because the Conservatives care about the issue. It has more to do with the same sort of subject matter they are talking about with the privilege issue. Let us ask ourselves, have the Conservatives ever, in the last number of years, raised this issue in the form of an opposition day motion? The short answer is no, they have not.

The only reason the Conservatives are raising it today is that, in going through the 100-plus reports, they said it was an issue that they could politicize. They could stand up and continue on with the character assassination of a particular minister. That is their motivation. It is not because they are concerned about indigenous issues. I did not witness that in the last speech by the Conservative member.

Just last week, I had the opportunity to participate in an organization called Raising the Roof. I understand that it actually originated in the province of Ontario. It is a wonderful group. It ensures that it is building a number of homes for non-profits. It ventured into Winnipeg, Manitoba, for the very first time. There was a substantial federal contribution to it, and I had the opportunity to participate in the announcement.

What touched me most in regard to that was the fact that there was a company, Purpose Construction, which is responsible for doing the renovations of a particular home that happens to be in Winnipeg North. It is on Mountain Avenue in what I would classify as the core, traditional, heritage-rich north end of Winnipeg. What would have been a dilapidated two-storey-plus home has now been converted into a wonderful place to call home, not for one, but actually two families. From what I understand, it also has a third area; this is maybe not necessarily for a family, but it could be for someone who is coming in and studying or whatever it might be. We will see that it is for the homeless.

There is another organization, Siloam Mission; this is actually the group that is going to be responsible for, from what I can recall, ensuring that there are tenants going into the facility and managing the facility. They are indigenous tenants. However, I will get back to Purpose Construction because it is more than just the federal government that is increasing the number of homes.

Purpose Construction is an indigenous company that is taking indigenous workers and allowing them to learn a trade and supporting that. The benefits of this particular facility, or home, that is being built go far beyond just providing another home for a couple of families and others. It is touching the community in a very real way, and it is supporting indigenous-led companies and more.

We should keep in mind that the Conservative Party does not support housing initiatives. Most recently, we have seen that with the housing accelerator fund, wherein the federal government is working with other municipalities to ensure that we get more homes built. Many Conservatives are saying that they like that particular program. They are writing to ministers. If there are 18 of them writing, I can only imagine how many others actually support it but are not writing to the Minister of Housing here.

I suspect that the housing announcement by the leader of the Conservative Party, which I have labelled as a dud, demonstrates how it is that the Conservative Party treats supporting indigenous communities. I could talk at great length in regard to the housing issue.

Let us move on to the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Even today, I believe I have heard at least one Conservative member say they want to get rid of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The Conservative Party's official position on the Canada Infrastructure Bank is to get rid of it. If we dig a little deeper, they will give misinformation. They will say that the Canada Infrastructure Bank does not do anything. There are billions of dollars of investments through the Canada Infrastructure Bank that have led to more billions of dollars of investments from other stakeholders. We are talking around $30 billion. The last time I checked, it was getting close to $30 billion.

If we check with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, we will see that the bank has an indigenous equity initiative that is enabling indigenous leaders to tap in and become partners on infrastructure development. There are projects there. How does the Conservative Party of Canada and its shiny new leader respond to that? They say that the Canada Infrastructure Bank is a bad idea and that they are going to cut it, just as they say they are going to cut the housing accelerator fund. Their policies are very much dictated by the far right in Canada. We know that.

The progressive nature that used to be in the Conservative Party has completely evaporated; it is more focused on cuts. If we were to broaden it out to expand beyond indigenous communities and just focus on cuts and why they are so relevant, the Conservative Party tries to give the false impression that it cares about indigenous communities; in fact, we know that it is going to cut indigenous funds that are now flowing.

Kevin Lamoureux

$491,080.00