Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I’ve stated, First Nations people in Canada, which is one of the richest countries in the world, still live in poverty. People have unsafe drinking water in their communities. People have the highest rate of diabetes and TB in Canada. Canada is recognized as one of the G8 countries, which are the eight richest countries in the world, yet we have these statistics in this great country. It makes us wonder why in this day and age Canada still allows these things to happen to its residents, especially to its First Nations people, who were the first people of this country. It’s sad to have to have a day of protest to bring attention to an issue we should all be working on to find solutions for.
I’ve brought up issues in this House for over 12 years in regard to quality water in my communities. I had to pound on this table to get the attention of the government on the other side. Yet we’re still having problems where you have to have teams of doctors go into our communities to test every citizen because of contamination of our water system. We have situations where we have 12 people in a home that was designed for four.
Overcrowding, unsafe drinking water and poverty are what hold the aboriginal people back. We have communities with an average income of $30,000 per year, yet we have large centres, such as Yellowknife, where the average income is $90,000 per year. That alone should tell us there is injustice in this territory.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I again would like to thank the people who did take part in this march and, more importantly, hope for more people to
speak out on these issues. That’s the only way it’s going to get the attention it deserves.
I will ask the Deputy Premier some questions on this matter later.