Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak briefly to Bill C-36.
Generally as the House has heard our party supports the goals of this legislation, the transfer of the moneys in the agreement to the Split Lake Cree Nation rather than being held in trust by the department of Indian affairs. Certainly we do not argue with the compensation in land, replacing that land which was flooded under the hydro project.
However, it appears the reopening of the northern flood agreement to accomplish these provisions considerably tops up the compensation provided in the northern flood agreement and enriches it considerably.
There are a number of questions that need to be answered. As we heard before, the briefing material provided by the department on this particular piece of legislation is very vague and incomprehensive, and it is hard to find the answers to the questions we are looking for. Hopefully we will be able to accomplish that in committee.
On a number of questions like the one of standard accounting practices, I do not really think it is reasonable to assume that because most other Indian bands across this country follow standard accounting practices it is reasonable to be able to assure all Canadians that standard accounting practices will be followed in this instance.
There need to be provisions in the agreement, in the act, to provide for that specifically considering that the administration of these funds is removed from the auspices of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and therefore also
removed from the jurisdiction of the Auditor General. That specific concern should be addressed.
One of my other concerns is why when all five bands were covered by the northern flood agreement are we now separating it out and dealing with one specific band instead of all five bands in a single piece of legislation or a single act to provide the same provisions for all the bands?
As I said, generally we support the objectives of this bill and hopefully if those answers can be provided to us in committee in areas with which we are concerned I am sure we can provide support and help a speedy passage of this bill through the process to enactment.