It’s always an honour to rise in this House after remarks from our friend from Kiiwetinoong.

In 2019, we saw the second hunger strike of the former Attiwapiskat chief, Theresa Spence. I had the honour of meeting her briefly during the Idle No More movement, when the chief came to our community and told us about the living conditions of her community versus the diamond mine that was being created, which had fresh water, which had food.

When you talk about the juxtaposition of the four-year-old children who have rashes on their skin, when you’re talking to the people in Neskantaga and other places, is this what you’re hearing from community members—that they fear this constant pattern of discrimination is going to be repeated? What’s talked about is prosperity, as you said, but what gets delivered to people in the communities is just a repeat of this continuing. I was wondering if you could elaborate for our benefit.

I was listening to my colleague from Mississauga-Milton who thanked the First Nations for taking care of the lands. We’ve seen in this budget—we’ve talked a lot of the Ring of Fire, the investments of building the road and everything that is tied to the Ring of Fire and the minerals up north. We heard also some communities are saying no to the road to the Ring of Fire, because of what’s happening in Neskantaga. And even the Chief was pretty adamant when it came to the Ring of Fire road. Don’t forget, Neskantaga has 28 years of boil-water advisories.

I ask you, the First Nations—because even in my riding, there are two communities who made a moratorium on their traditional territories. So I ask you, if First Nations say no, what will your government do?

So I ask again: If you don’t get consent from the communities of the James Bay coast that are affected by the Ring of Fire road construction, what will your government do? Because most of the budget—there’s a lot of investment related to these materials that’s going to happen. So I ask you, what will your government do if you don’t get the consent from these First Nations communities?