With regard to the carbon and excise taxes, it's an indirect tax that all first nations pay regardless of so-called exemptions.
One community in particular, Six Nations, pays over $350 million a year in an excise tax. Every time a first nations person buys cigarettes, alcohol or gasoline on reserve, they're paying an excise tax, but we have no control over where those dollars are expended.
For the carbon tax, as I mentioned in my presentation, we've been struggling to get our share of those dollars that are collected from my community as well as many others. We get nothing. As a matter of fact, my community pays in excess of $970 million a year to the federal and provincial governments. For every dollar that is collected, the federal and provincial governments get seven.
That's the purpose of this study: to try to reverse that trend so that we're not repeating 1927 and what Mr. Calla talked about. The amendment that took place in 1927 was critical for us, because that made us forever dependent on the federal government. That was a piece of legislation that forbade us from raising money to defend our land rights but, more importantly, to build our own infrastructure, to build our own buildings. That was taken away, so from that point forward, we were dependent on somebody else.
I just love what he said, because it could be said today: “just an act of grace, whatever you saw fit to give us.” That's dependence and that's what we want to end.
We want to end that with your support and your goodwill, and not just with talk but with legislation, because without strong legislation.... That's the way to section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. The federal government opens the door, we enter it and we can have security that the jurisdiction is first nations and it's optional. This can't be forced on any community.
As I mentioned to Mr. Obed the other day, I think one of the things we have to consider in this country is how first nations, Inuit and Métis can work together to achieve true economic reconciliation within this federation.