Mr. Speaker, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Senators who will be making an attempt to travel to the Northwest Territories and travel throughout the North in regard to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and look at the issue of poverty in the North and especially in aboriginal communities. It is important that the Northern leaders, the representatives, MLAs and our government work with them to come up with some ideas on how to deal with poverty in aboriginal communities.
The thing that appalls me the most is who is not taking part in this journey: the Conservative Senators who totally refuse to take part. They say it is a waste of money and a waste of time. I find that to be appalling. As a government and as part of our government system, the Senate plays an important role as a chamber of second thought. But yet, Mr. Speaker, that is an appalling state when the Conservative Senators refuse to travel, saying that it is a waste of time and money. So who are we — another country?
It is important to deal with the issue of poverty, especially in aboriginal communities and especially here in Canada, where statistics show that aboriginal people in Canada live in poverty, similar to Third World countries.
I would like to state for the record: next time we come to a federal election, we’ve got to remember the slogan “ABC: Anybody But Conservatives.”
