Mr. Speaker, this motion has been misread. It depends where you are coming from sometimes how you choose to read something. Nowhere in this motion does the Reform Party suggest that governments cannot sign agreements in the last year of their mandate.
We are saying that when there is a significant, a major, a costly and a divisive issue, in the same way that the Mulroney Tories in the dying days of their government, low in the polls, signed the EH-101 and the Pearson deals, this is a divisive issue in British Columbia. It is precedent setting and worth billions of dollars. It is totally inappropriate for the government in the last year of its mandate to sign this treaty. In actuality the election is most likely only months away. It will be in the spring.
I want to make it perfectly clear that this is a basic assumption that was promoted by the last speaker and it is incorrect. Nowhere are we saying that, nor is that our intent.
There was a suggestion by the member that only a Liberal government is qualified to govern and only a Liberal government is qualified to judge the issues. I find that very difficult, particularly in the context of British Columbia. That is a stretch of unimaginable proportions.
The member made some statements about lands and about treaties. The significant thing in British Columbia is that British Columbia spent many years after Confederation contributing lands to the federal government to reserve for native people. That was a commitment made at the time of Confederation under the Act of Union. It was an unfulfilled commitment up until 1924. In 1924 the federal government, by order in council, agreed that the province of British Columbia had fulfilled its obligations.
British Columbia has two-thirds of all the reserves in Canada. About 18 per cent of registered Indian people in Canada live in British Columbia. Those reserves contain, within a provincial context, 14 per cent of all lands reserved for Indians. This is not insignificant. It is the crux of a very large issue. There is no legal imperative to negotiate treaties.
We are not saying that treaties should not be negotiated. We are also interested in removing the uncertainty from the landscape and from this whole issue. This is an appropriate way to do it. However, right now is not the time to conclude a final agreement.