I can speak French when discussing political matters, but not when it comes to discussing legal questions.
The questions you've asked are very important. The Indian Act has been described as a piece of colonial legislation. That's not language I use in particular, but I've been very critical in saying that the Indian Act is a compilation of pre-Confederation statutes. It's not acceptable for 500,000 to 600,000 people in this country to have their lives governed by a legislative base that was developed 150 years ago. We have to move beyond that collectively as parliamentarians.
I think there's agreement on that. The issue is really to try to achieve a consensus on how to go forward, and I hope we can all make some progress on that. I'm a very strong believer in self-government, and I've been committed to the self-government progress. But that can only go so far so quickly. As I mentioned in my introductory comments, we have really close to 600 first nations in Canada that are not at this point operating under a self-government regime; they are still under the Indian Act, which is not working very satisfactorily.
The process we are following here will help us arrive at legislative solutions that will break away from the discrimination you've spoken about. I don't wish to pre-judge what those solutions are. I know that previously, in both the Senate work and the House of Commons work, suggested drafts were put forward. A private member's bill has been tabled in the House. There have been previous private members' bills, all of which propose language. One of the common themes is the need for some sort of default code or default legislation that would apply until a first nation put a self-government regime in place.
So it's that interim period that is most difficult. If all first nations end up where Westbank is, for example, where matrimonial property laws are in place through a self-government agreement, that would be wonderful. Of real concern is the interim period, which could be lengthy for many first nations. During that period we need to ensure that there are matrimonial property rights that are consistent with the provincial rights that neighbouring women enjoy. So generally speaking, that's the target.