Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right, without consulting the proponents.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It is an honour to address the House of Commons Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs to discuss land use and sustainable development. For those of you who don't know me, I am Clarence T. “Tax” Manny Jules. I was named after my father. He was chief of our community in the 1960s.

Finance committee  The challenge facing your committee is how do first nations, individuals, governments and, for that matter, all aboriginal people fit within the federation and the global economy? We've all got huge resources at stake. Indeed, the future of the country depends on our active participation in federalism as well as the economy.

Finance committee  I did have it included as part of my presentation, but given the lack of time.... I created the Tulo Centre of Indigenous Economics, and part of our focus is to try to transfer the necessary private entrepreneurial knowledge to individuals, including all the skills needed in Fort McMurray and, indeed, in any place where you need resource extraction.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. When we think about our role in the development of this country and its proud history and the future, I don't want to repeat what's happened in the past. When I look forward to the 21st century, I don't want to build our first nations on 19th century models.

Finance committee  One of the things that we've created very successfully within first nations communities is bureaucracies. What I want to be successful at is creating economies. We must have a good public sector, but fundamentally we need to have an economic base. If we don't have entrepreneurs who can compete globally, we're going to condemn yet another generation to poverty.

Finance committee  That's right. There needs to be a fundamental change and shift in the philosophy of how first nations fit within the Canadian federation, and that means true governance. When you look at the underlying title, that's the fundamental thing to address. The title has to be transferred from the federal government to the first nation.

Finance committee  Yes. One of the problems with the government's rationing of funds for infrastructure is that it doesn't take into account the overall infrastructure needs to build an economy. Without infrastructure you can't adequately build an economy. Right now the focus is on the local needs, which doesn't allow for the size of pipe that's required to facilitate economic development and growth.

Finance committee  First of all, what we're proposing is specific legislation that would optional, so that communities could choose to opt into it. What it would do is to transfer the ownership. Right now, the federal government.... Try to imagine what it would be like if Canada tried to build an economy with no individual private property rights; it just couldn't be done.

Finance committee  Right now the present system is on a rationed basis, and that has to change. We're proposing a focus on the fiscal administration and capacity that will allow first nations to be responsible for planning, financing, building, operating, maintaining and, ultimately, replacing infrastructure.

Finance committee  One of the problems with the responsibilities of your committee and government is that you need to change the philosophical approach to dealing with aboriginal people as a whole. In my opinion, it should be about creating economies. The problem with the moneys being expended right now is that the vast majority go into social welfare programs.

Finance committee  We can come to it during questions.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, for over 20 years I've been working with first nations to implement taxation, build infrastructure, and improve services. There are about 140 first nation tax authorities, and since 1990 they have generated at least $800 million in local revenues.