Tuesday, March 09, 2010

On dereliction of duty

While I tend toward the view that the high-profile portions of question period are covered to death, there's still sometimes room for some highly noteworthy questions and answers to slip through the cracks. Take for example what this exchange between NDP MP Carol Hughes and Con Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says about the Cons' view of their federal responsibility for Canada's First Nations:
Mrs. Carol Hughes (Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, last week's throne speech indicated that we will improve the conditions of aboriginal women in Canada.

When it comes to HIV-AIDS, the infection rate for aboriginal women is running ahead of Canadian averages and is increasing. Aboriginal women are overrepresented in the Canadian epidemic. To bring this number down requires money and political will.

Will the government commit necessary funding to bring the HIV-AIDS infection rate down among aboriginal women?

Hon. Leona Aglukkaq (Minister of Health, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, we continue to increase the transfers of funding to provinces and territories. Again this year we are increasing the transfers by six per cent. We will continue to work with the provinces and the territories to deal with health issues.
Now, if one wants to be generous, one could note that it's possible that working with provinces and territories could conceivably have some impact on the spread of AIDS. But the fact that Aglukkaq doesn't even mention the word herself seems to speak volumes about the Cons' actual lack of interest in having anything to do with the issue. Indeed, Aglukkaq says nothing more than that the other levels of government will have money to work with when it comes to general health spending which they can choose to apply to the problem.

More importantly, though, there's still a gaping hole in Aglukkaq's response. After all, it's the federal government alone which is directly responsible for health and other government issues on First Nations reserves. So money sent to the provinces wouldn't have any conceivable effect on programs for hundreds of thousands of First Nations people.

Of course, one can simply view Aglukkaq's answer as a default response to all issues dealing with health - and I'm sure the Cons would come with additional spin if the issue gets pressed. But it's still striking that the Harper government's first line of talking points is to both ignore AIDS as a separate issue, and to feign ignorance of its responsibility for the well-being of on-reserve First Nations.

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