The highlight for me was a tax-sharing agreement in New Brunswick, but which Premier Higgs ended last year. I'm sure Ms. Atwin is familiar with that. That had generated some millions of dollars for individual communities on a tax-sharing arrangement. It allowed those communities to share in the revenues that were generated. That's ultimately what the solution is.
The federal and provincial governments have to give taxation and jurisdictional room for first nations to occupy, so that we would be able to look after ourselves. That's why I referenced the 1927 amendments to the Indian Act. Those were led by Duncan Campbell Scott, who basically put in place the residential school policies and a lot of the policies we still deal with today that are inherent in the bureaucracy and in the Indian Act.
When I think about the proper place of first nations and how we can begin to work together, it's to legislate our way out of the mess that we find ourselves in. It's providing stable resources through tax jurisdiction and other jurisdictions, so that we can begin to make up our minds about what our priorities are without having to first seek approval from somebody else.
We are proposing that we develop an approach that would lead us to be part of the federation. Right now, we're not. All of the resources in the country are divided between the federal and provincial governments. Indeed, the first initiative that allowed us to have independent taxation revenues happened in 1988. It's high time we begin to look at taxation as a very fundamental economic and jurisdictional tool. The federal government could lead the way in this example.
Having said that, we are reaching out to try to resolve the issues in New Brunswick. We're working with the Mi'kMaq. We're also working in Manitoba and here in British Columbia on trying to resolve these very complex issues.
As we begin to resolve them, all of the institutions before you here today are a testament to the fact that stability and jurisdiction lead to economic development and growth and to social policy issues being dealt with at the local level. It puts power in the hands of the communities, which is where it should rest.