Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate my colleague's speech. It certainly has given us some hope that as opposed to dusting off reports and having study after study, hopefully we will see an increase in funding for first nations education in the budget. Maybe he could elaborate on that for us.
I also want quote Shawn Atleo, who appeared at the Senate committee before it tabled its report on education for first nations. He said that:
The current approach for funding First Nations schools through an outdated funding formula, combined with time-limited, proposal-based programs, is just not an acceptable approach. The 2 per cent cap on annual expenditure increases that has been there since 1996 has meant that classroom funding in First Nations education has not kept up with inflation, nor with population growth. We estimate that at least a 6.3 per cent increase was required over this time period to simply keep up.
Could the member advise us whether or not we will see the funding cap reduced, and is he in agreement with the 6.3% increase that the chief indicated was required?