Ron Irwin

[Indian Affairs, February 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, as I understand it, the allegation is that Mr. Peltier was employed by the former government at the time of the Oka crisis. I do not know if that is correct or incorrect. If my hon. friend has information to that effect, will he please bring it forward and it will be examined.

It is difficult in the daily operation of a band to go in and interfere because of the inherent right of self-government. On the other hand, we have an onus to make sure there are checks and balances that work.

As minister I have instructed my officials to examine the allegations carefully. Hopefully there will be some evidence forthcoming from my friend. I am committed to bring fiscal accountability to the House and present any reports that we have.

[Indian Affairs, February 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, no matter how much yelling and how much clapping occurs over there, in no way, shape or form will they ever explain or rationalize that their leader was sitting here doing what he was complaining about at that time.

[Indian Affairs, February 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the question is about what was his response at that time. We were not here at that time. I believe there are two members on the other side of the House who were. If my learned friend wants to ask them that question he might do it at the recess.

[Federal Grants, February 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, if my hon. friend is going to ask that question he should ask his own leader. If the funds were paid inappropriately, they were paid during the tenure of a former government.

We have inherited this problem of overpayments. The accounting firm of Raymond, Chabot, Martin and Paré are in there addressing a problem we have inherited. It is developing a special relationship with the manager to address this problem.

If that particular leader was not there at that particular time, he was certainly there during the period the money was paid to that band. If the money was spent inappropriately the question

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by this hon. member should be why did his leader not address the problem when he was there and had the chance?

An accounting firm is addressing the problem. We are working on a management agreement. I am prepared to share the problems of the management agreement with the hon. member because we certainly do not want the problem or the overpayments to continue.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, we are looking at all the cultural aspects of self-government.

It is very serious. For instance, further north the elders pick the chiefs and sometimes when the chiefs get back to their villages they are no longer chiefs. With the Ojibways, the elders sit as advisers. With the Mohawks it is a longhouse culture. There is no one set model of self-government in this nation.

However, I will say that the Sawridge band is probably one of the richest bands in this country. It is sitting on tens of millions of dollars. That band is saying to its people that it will not share. That is not the way this government or Canadians should operate.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Sawridge bill does not address the issue of Bill C-31, returnees now before the court.

When the Sawridge bill came before the former government, probably aided and abetted by the former minister, it was not accepted by cabinet. It was not accepted by the Department of Justice which said that it did not respect the crown's obligations to a band as a whole.

This was rejected by me, by my leader and by this government. We are looking at Bill C-31, the Cree nation as a whole when we say that the inherent right of self-government exists and we will work within that framework.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 16th, 1994]

Again, Mr. Speaker, although I do not like the term because I was once a mayor, municipalities are creatures of the provinces, the direct jurisdiction between the province and the municipality.

Any municipality that is interested is invited to listen and to participate from Yukon down through B.C. As a matter of fact I was talking to a B.C. mayor last night as a result of a suggestion from one of the Reform members. I think the system will work. It has to work because we have no other options.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 16th, 1994]

As a point of law, Mr. Speaker, local municipalities are creatures of the province. However, in the spirit of these negotiations, because municipalities are concerned about zoning where they abut aboriginal lands and economic development where it affects both the municipalities and the First Nations, I put forward, as a statement not as a policy, that where possible municipalities should be invited in an open and transparent mode so they will know exactly what is happening, and they will know exactly where they fit into the mosaic. Generally this has been accepted by many of the mayors I have talked to across the country.

[Indian Affairs, February 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there are one and a half million aboriginal people. We are dealing with them as individuals, as family.

The hon. member is looking at one part of the country. I wish he would look at what the government has just done in B.C.-toward his neck of the woods-in Labrador and Nunavut.

In twelve weeks we have kick started most of the negotiations. That is what is going to bring this country together. Common ground brings us together and not what certain groups within the Mohawk community are doing right now.

I am getting upset because it only took Oka three weeks of this type of dialogue to happen. Meech Lake floundered. A few Indians went out to protect a golf course. The army was called out by the province of Quebec and the next thing is that we spent $150 million and killed a person. I do not want to see that happen again.

Our party and our government is going to ensure that it does not happen again.

[Indian Affairs, February 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there are times when we have to come together not just as members of this Commons but as concerned people and not be throwing gasoline on a highly volatile situation. Does the hon. member want to force another Oka? It happened so innocently and it could happen again.

If the hon. member would take the time to go down to Akwesasne, as many members on this side did, he will find 12,000 law-abiding Indians doing their business-law abiding, with a hospital, a school and a 500 criminal element. It is the criminal element we have to deal with.

The member for Lac-Saint-Jean said that in his statement about two weeks ago. There are Indians and there is the criminal element. The leader of the opposition said that when dealing with Davis Inlet. The hon. member who sits behind the leader of the opposition said that today. We do not have to deal with Indians, but with the criminal element in Indian communities the same way we deal with the criminal element in the non-Indian community. That is the long and the short of it.