Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to speak and vote in favour of this motion and an opportunity for me to add my voice in letting the federal government know how devastating and offensive these cuts are to the North, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, when the new Conservative government came into power, I was told by someone who remembered the previous Conservative government days awhile back that there would be cuts in programs and services. With this being a minority government, Mr. Speaker, I really didn't expect the cuts to come so swiftly and so severely. I could not have imagined that the cuts would be aimed at such programs and services that are of such value to so many citizens, especially in the North, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, what hurts more, I think, is that this is not a case where the cuts came up as a fiscal restraint measure where the government is running out of money, we all have to tighten the belt, can we look around? Can we do more with less? It was not at all like any of that sort of measure. I know the cuts hurt all the time, but if it was that sort of exercise, I think there might be some support and more support.
Mr. Speaker, what we have here in Canada is a real ideological war, in my opinion. This is really about principles. I remember somebody saying when the previous government was going through a hard time, there were a lot of people saying I would like to have a leader who is very clear about what he stands for and I like a government with principles. I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, in a way I am glad that the Conservative government has made it very clear exactly what their principles are, because I believe this is giving us an opportunity to really rethink, as a Canadian and as residents of NWT, about exactly what our principles are, exactly what our values are, in terms of what we would like the government to do. What other levels of services, what are the priorities? Mr. Speaker, for many years, we have taken lots of programs and services for granted. I think when the people have a chance to rethink that, when the opportunity arises, people are going to exercise or put that letter X into the appropriate place and put this government back to the old reform and alliance closets that this new government came from.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the Canadian principle is that we value literacy, especially in the North. This is a dire issue. The NWT Literacy Council had an exemplary record in providing very valuable programs and services all over the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I have seen and participated in gatherings of community literacy workers from all over the North where these workers got together in the Northern United Place just last fall and they were talking about the programs that they are working on in our communities and how they are making a difference in that regard. They had projects pasted around the walls and these are programs where people have gone about taking care of business and looking after our people's interests.
Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you my principles stand in support of the literacy workers. Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Prime Minister of Canada knows that BHP has the largest program in literacy in the North because the government has failed to provide necessary literacy training. BHP, as an employer, has realized that in order to hire our northern aboriginal people, they needed to help them with literacy programs. Mr. Harper should realize there is more to resource development than just extracting resources. The more important part of resource development is that we have to work on the human resources, and that includes enabling our human resources to take opportunity of employment situations that come out of resource development projects. Cutting these kinds of literacy programs and other programs that he has done is working backwards, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard the proponents of these literacy cuts and geo cuts saying in the national media and territorial media that most of this money goes to staff, the office, and there is an argument made by the Conservative-thinking people that the less social programs there are, the better off. I wonder, Mr. Speaker, for those who speak like that, I wonder who do they think should deliver these programs if not the people sitting in offices? Who does it take to organize all these community people to develop programs? Certainly it's not going to be robots. I find that really offensive, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to tell you that if the Conservative government wants the government to stay small, that would be more reason to support these NGO programs in offices. I am telling you, these people work at low wages, practically volunteering, and it would cost the government a lot more money to deliver programs on literacy, on smoking cessation, youth employment, adult literacy, anything you can think of, women's programs. NGOs are a better return on money than the government. This is even going against its principles.
This takes me to the next section about volunteer money. Mr. Speaker, I could only assume that Conservatives don't see the value in the volunteer sector. Mr. Speaker, my city of Yellowknife tops the charts year after year in a vast array of interested volunteerism. Volunteer NWT has made huge progress over the last two years in just a short two years to foster and expand this initiative throughout the NWT, so that benefits to be gained by volunteering and volunteerism would spread all over the North. I don't agree with the Conservative principle that this is not a cause worth government spending.
Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on and on stating my differences with the Conservative principles, but I don't agree with the principle that the government should not use its surplus cash to fund smoking cessation programs, youth employment programs, women and volunteer programs, as well as the group seeking to protect equality rights through the Court Challenges Program, Law Reform Commission. The list goes on and on and on. Of course,
we are in this House mostly concerned right now about cuts to literacy funding.
Mr. Speaker, when these cuts were announced without warning, I have to tell you this was not unplanned or arbitrary. These cuts were designed to show exactly where the Conservative government stands. Mr. Speaker, this Conservative government stands exactly to the right of even the most right wing Republican government in the U.S. As the Liberal MP from Nova Scotia said, this government is so right, it's wrong.
---Laughter
Mr. Speaker, this is the kind of principle that really works for those who have sufficient personal and financial resources to live life without ever getting help from publicly funded programs. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in the States who got tax cuts from the Bush government even though they said they didn't want it. On the smaller scale, Conservative principles work for people like me. I would like to say that I am quite self-sufficient. I could probably live the rest of my life without getting a lot of help from publicly funded programs. It's a principle that believes the less government, the better and any effort to redistribute the wealth of our nation through government programs and services is seen as some kind of a waste of tax money and not a good distribution of public resources. You know what, Mr. Speaker? That's a principle I don't agree with and I don't think that's a principle that works for our situation in the North because, if left unchecked, I believe this principle will have an even more devastating effect in the North. In the North, we don't have economic and social sufficiency or even political sufficiency at the moment without devolution and resource revenue sharing. We are not a self-sustaining economy or a self-sustaining polity at the moment and we don't have the social structure to go on our own. This is a place where a good positive role of the government is very crucial in the progress of our people.
Mr. Speaker, I believe this is a Conservative principle that will see more of our people being left behind. There will be a lot more cuts and I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, with this motion and this point forward we have to keep telling the federal government that this is not the way to go. Even in the most booming economy and where there is such a surplus in federal funds, they should be doing more to accommodate and facilitate progress of our people rather than doing everything they can to leave all the people who don't have it behind and just take care of the people who can already take care of themselves.
Mr. Speaker, obviously I cannot speak strongly enough about how opposed I am to these cuts. I am sending out the warning that this might even just be the beginning of a lot more to come. If we don't take a big stand, we could see out of control spending on defence, out of control deficit going up because there will be tax increases to see the tax money or good distribution of resources to spend on their priorities. We are going to continue to see a government that chooses to go after made-in-Canada solutions for global problems like global warming. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is just the start of a big conservation we are going to have and we have to tell the federal government that enough is enough and they are not going to get one step further than where they are now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause