Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:

Honourable senators, with the Prime Minister going up North as often as he does, it is surprising that he has not seen any of this himself and has maybe given some direction to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. I learned that leadership, contrary to management, means being up front in the midst of a crisis attempting to bring solace and support to those in need, not sitting at home fiddling with paperwork and the media out of an office. There is a leadership role that is not being fulfilled by the Prime Minister.

Suggested amounts of the money invested have been floating around — $50 million and $90 million over three years — like an accusatory instrument of mismanagement because we want to know where that money went. Surely Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development know exactly where the money went because they disburse that money.

However, having conducted operations in the North, we know that one has to expect at least 10 times the cost of conducting an operation down here. Whatever it costs up North has to include the cost of building and sustaining. The cost of simply getting people in and out is exponentially more expensive than it is here. Why have we not heard the discussion about how expensive it is up North and how one cannot buy as much in the North for the same amount of money as one can buy here? Can we see that analysis included in the response from the government regarding the cost of operating up North?

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