Thank you for the question, Mr. Laforest.
I'd like to explain a little bit about the background of this particular issue and then refer directly to your question, which is about economies in first nations communities. And I'll refer to most of those in British Columbia.
In our estimation, the honour of the crown is at stake when dealing with this particular issue in our communities. I need to state that for the record. We don't feel as if we've been given the opportunity to deal with this particular issue. And I refer to the fact that my organization, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, had $4,500 for our legal advisers to develop a position based on our perspectives. We exhausted that small fund, and our legal adviser is now working pro bono.
In reference to your question about the economies on reserve and the distinction that is made by our people buying goods and services on reserve, very few first nations are in that enviable position. By and large, they have enacted their own first nations GST and first nations PST. But that occurs mostly in the British Columbia area. Most first nations are engaged in the collection of real property tax through the First Nations Tax Commission. But that opportunity isn't available to all first nations across Canada because it's optional.
One thing we refer to up in the Shuswap Nation, where I'm from, is “bungee economics”. Most of our communities don't have infrastructure or secondary industry; most of us are rural-based. And there are a lot of barriers to doing business on reserve.
What we refer to as bungee economics is the money that comes to us as first nations people goes directly into the local non-native communities that have goods and services and infrastructure in place to sell to our people. It doesn't even do one circuit, for the most part.