Mr. Speaker, I do not know anything about this member's reference to a former Reform researcher being involved in some sinister kind of organization. It does not sound like something a Reform researcher would be involved in.
What we have heard from this member today is some of the most despicable kind of mud slinging I have ever heard. I have heard a lot of it before coming from across the floor, but I do not think I have ever heard anything any worse than that.
He virtually used all the ism words that he could imagine without saying them directly. I think the kind of tactic used by this member is what is killing fair and proper debate in the House of Commons and across the country.
He should be thoroughly ashamed of himself. For him to imply that Reform is trying to do anything but help aboriginal people completely ignores the truth. I hope the member would stand and apologize when he gets the next opportunity, because it is a despicable approach to take to debate in the House and he should be ashamed of himself.
I would like to refer to one of the member's comments. He thought I sounded like I was saying that all chiefs and councils across the country were corrupt. I do not believe that is the case, although we did hear from all eight reserves in the Lakeland constituency of very serious claims about money not being allocated properly. Whether that constitutes corruption or not I guess is a matter for debate.
In many cases it is very clear that there was corruption because the audits have been done and it was proven through the audits. In some cases charges were laid and guilt was affirmed through the justice system. To say that it is across the country, I do not believe that is true. I do not believe it is on all reserves, but it is on many reserves and it is certainly a problem in my constituency. We are trying to rectify the problem by calling for proper accountability. That is what the Lakeland aboriginal task force heard from grassroots aboriginal people.
Let us get some real accountability into the system so the money that is being spent and coming into the reserves from taxpayers' through the federal government, the department of Indian affairs, and the money from oil and gas revenue as an example are accounted for. How much is coming in needs to be clearly accounted for and the people themselves need to know where the money is being spent. On all eight reserves in Lakeland constituency the people said very clearly that there was not proper accounting.
In the report we certainly were not attacking chiefs and councils. We were maybe a little kind but that is the tone we wanted in the report. Our recommendation No. 2 was on accountability. To assure sound financial management on reserves and settlements the government must provide better financial management support for aboriginal councillors and administrators. The second recommendation called for some help from the department of Indian affairs to teach chiefs and councils how to account properly.
Does that sound like we are slamming chiefs and councils? We deliberately took a very conciliatory tone. We did not attack chiefs and councils although some of the individuals who made presentations did. That is reality. We cannot change that. We deliberately presented it in a way that would allow chiefs and councils to improve so that they would become truly accountable. That is the tone we took and that is what we presented to the minister.
I close by saying that it is extremely sad and troublesome that after all this time we would still have the kind of attack launched by a member of the New Democratic Party against any member of the House. It would be unfair for any member to be painted in the way that he painted some of us today.