Mr. Speaker, I have been listening very carefully for the past couple of hours to a number of interventions made by members of the Reform Party.
I appreciate the comments made by the member of the New Democratic Party. His interventions speak very clearly to the problem of the misuse of language and the misrepresentation of the issues we are dealing with. I find the debate quite interesting as we debate the northern flood agreement.
We have heard talks about self-government, dealing with the Nisga'a deal, references to RMs, the most recent intervention from this member claiming that he speaks for the people of Manitoba on aboriginal issues and talking about the participation of the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development at this rather odd undertaking at the Airliner Inn in Winnipeg. I find the debate is moving off into areas that are not intended in this bill.
This bill is about a bill of compensation that was properly addressed by the New Democratic member from Winnipeg. It is a bill about compensation. The member for Selkirk—Interlake talked about the fact he lives on the inlet. So do I. We were transferred to Norway House when they were building the power lines. My father was a pilot for the government air services for many years in 1950s. We spent a summer there.
I believe the hon. member misses the entire point of the debate about compensation. Some of his colleagues have referred to that. The hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest has spoken to it very clearly. This is a question of hydro flooding these lands in northern Manitoba and doing it improperly without consulting the native people. I wonder, for example, whether the provincial minister who is responsible and is signatory to this agreement talked about that at the Airliner Inn in Winnipeg.
This is an agreement about compensation. It is an agreement about a contract and a breach of contract. There is a settlement between the parties, Manitoba Hydro, the Government of Canada and the first nations people, in this case the people of Norway House who voted on the bill. He referred to the cottage owners in Lake Winnipeg. Is it not proper, is it not right, that when somebody floods somebody's land, that the first nations people would be compensated for the lands that were flooded, that this is the proper thing for the Government of Canada and Manitoba to do? They all signed the agreement.