I think, MP Battiste, you said it best when you said that it is really up to the communities to choose.
The Indian Act is not only a racist document, but one that has been imposed on communities. Getting out from under it has been the subject of a lot of simplistic thoughts as to how that happens. When you sit down, however, it is a complex web of insidious discrimination that has affected pretty much every facet of indigenous identity and experience, especially in the on-reserve scenario, for anyone who knows the history of the Indian Act.
This legislation gives the optionality to the communities to say yes, but, importantly, to say no. Whatever reason that is, we in government just need to accept it.
I mentioned earlier that going from 348 communities that are scheduled in the annex to 77 that have drawn down or received the financing under this particular regime is important, but it isn't necessarily linear for people. Some people don't want the on-reserve property taxation laws. There are only 133 that have developed and implemented those laws as part of the tax commission. There are 256 that have enacted financial administration laws, and 210 that have received certification. Is this a natural progression? It may or may not be. Some of it is important, and some of it is take-it-or-leave-it for some communities.
As part of developing the amendments in the package you have in front of you today, that has been something that has been stressed time and time again. As progressive as it was perceived to be 20 years ago, that currently isn't the case today. It leaves partners unable to move “at the speed of business”, as they said quite clearly on Monday, for example.
That is key. I think it's a matter of financial speed as much as it is the ability of people to affirm their right to determine what they do with their own selves and their communities. In that sense, it is in the spirit of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and, frankly, it responds to some of the TRC calls.