Mr. Speaker, I know my hon. colleague from British Columbia has some first nations reserves in his riding.
The last time the member went out visiting, door knocking or held any community forums on a first nations reserve did he take much account of the street signs and the house numbers that existed or did he do any sort of a plebiscite on the number of first nations people who had telephone numbers, addresses and letters from the telephone company ready to go? I have 19 different first nations communities and I know he is getting some help from a colleague in my riding.
Our first nations have many challenges to participating in our electoral process. It is without dispute that first nations people participate far less in the voting process than non-first nations, and that needs to be fixed. The first nations in my communities are expressing great concern over the suggestion that they need to go to the band council office to get a letter that will allow them their charter right to vote. At a basic level, the bill opens it up to a charter challenge, quicker than the member can stand up, for impinging upon an individual's right to vote.
The hon. member talked about voter photo ID. I am not sure if he has checked any status cards lately but he can let me know if he has seen voter photo ID on those cards or if he has seen phone bills that will account for every first nations person on reserve.
The point is that we in this place must do everything we can to allow first nations people to participate in a democracy and to allow more first nations representation in this place.
I am just not sure of the hon. member's experiences. I want to know his personal experiences of being out in the reserves, of going door to door and talking to people and finding out what capacities and abilities they have right now to participate in the process, and what the effects of the bill will be.
This is a very serious concern and we cannot dismiss it with glib anecdotes. We know that we need a real enumeration in this country. His party, when in power, refused to participate in it. The current government refuses to spend the money on our most basic rights, which is to know where the electorate are and to have a proper enumeration. We have absolutely nothing to tell other nations about a voting system until we perform that basic function, which we have not done for years.
I wonder if the hon. member could comment on this simple idea and, again, allude to the many experiences I know he has had on first nations reserves.