Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to talk about the particular issue for a few moments and would like to point out a couple of matters with regard to what some of my colleagues have said. What Bill C-49 is trying to accomplish is honourable. There is a purpose behind the bill which I am sure a lot of people would like to see happen.
I would like to point out some things that have been said by grassroots natives across the land from whom I have heard in the last little while. One comment that sunk deep into my thoughts was from an ex-chief of the Siksika nation in Alberta. He said that before we could move to any of these kinds of agreements, before we could begin to establish any kind of self-government rule on native issues, we must make sure there are rules in place that will hold all parties accountable for what happens in that regard.
He is basing that comment on his experience in his own reserve and a nearby reserve where his family members and grandchildren live, the Stoney reserve. Members have heard many things about the Stoney reserve, which is presently under review by auditors and will continue to be until some answers are achieved. We expect a report some day soon.
Comments like those of Roy Littlechief are being said across the country. Many grassroots people I have talked with everywhere are saying that accountability must be in place before we can turn over any kind of self-government to those in charge on our reserves. That makes sense to me now, having visited many reserves and having seen the squalor many of these individuals are living in.
People are living on reserves where there is no running water and no electricity. They have a path instead of a bath. They do not have the conveniences we are accustomed to in a great country like Canada. The reason is that the dollars do not seem to be there. When we try to find out about where the dollars may have gone and what has happened there are no answers. When we try to ask for an investigation because of the accusations of a number of grassroots people from many of these reserves it is denied.
On one reserve I visited I carefully looked over some documents the grassroots people managed to get their hands on. They concerned payments from the social department on the reserve. I looked down the list of these payments to the persons who were in receipt. There would be the band member's name for $320, another band member's name and perhaps $450. Suddenly we came to a name and it was $9,500. In the next month that same name reappeared only it was $8,000, several thousand dollars more than anyone else was receiving on welfare. I asked the persons who were in possession of these documents why this individual was getting so much money on the welfare program and the others so little. They reached into their files and brought out a death certificate. The individual who was receiving $9,500 and $8,000 per month has been deceased for 13 years.
You do not have to be a rocket scientist to think that is a little strange and that it is something that ought to be checked into. Yet when we question it through the department of Indian affairs, then we question it above that, and we go to the RCMP who agree that this probably should be investigated, it is all stopped with the common answer that I get continually from the Indian affairs department “it's an internal problem”. In other words, let them solve it themselves.
It is more than an internal problem when these kinds of things happen. There is accountability that we in this House owe to the taxpayers of Canada whether we like to admit it or not. When we pour billions of dollars into the top of the department of Indian affairs, we should be accountable to the taxpayer where every dollar of that goes, how is it being used and is it effective.
I have not found one taxpayer yet who is not pleased to put money into a program such as Indian affairs providing it does the job of looking after the people in need. Then there are reserves with 90% unemployment, which is not unusual, 40% drug addictions, not illegal drugs but medical, where alcoholism is running rampant, where they have schools which can educate the people on the reserves and only 16% of those eligible on the reserve are attending the school. There is something wrong with that.
To jump into a bill like Bill C-49 and say we are going to do that, the biggest fear that Roy Littlechief and other grassroots people have is it will simply empower those who are in charge now to a greater degree and things are going to get a whole lot worse on an individual basis. He simply says deliver a message to parliament. Make sure the things are in place that will make the chiefs, councils and all the leaders right up the ladder accountable for every dollar that goes into that department.
That is a pretty wise thing to say. A report from the department of Indian affairs says: “As many as 25% of Canada's 500 Indian bands are broke enough that the federal government will either have to intervene or take over financial management this year”. This is what the Indian affairs managers said: “The bands have made little headway in recent years to dig out from debtloads that are causing federal officials grave concerns even as aboriginals strive toward self-government. The trend blamed on mismanagement, both by federal officials and Indian leaders, has continued for the past five years. The problem is like a revolving door. A dozen indebted bands get straightened out and another 12 sink deep into debt”.
Those kinds of things are happening. My wife and I took tours into reserves. We sat in tar paper shacks. We were hosted by elders sitting on apple crates, doing the best they could to host us with what they had and happy as could be that a member of parliament for the first time in their history even dared step on to the reserve to that length. They have never had an opportunity to talk to a member of parliament. They are crying out “What can you do to help us? We live like this”.
I say to the minister of Indian affairs why not address the issue at hand, the squalor they are living in, the unaccounted dollars. Make sure all the mechanisms are in place, then bring Bill C-49 forward and she will probably find all kinds of support once all those things are there to make sure the right things happen on behalf of the people.
Some Conservatives, New Democrats and Liberals think it is a shame that we are exploiting these people and that it is opportunism. I will tell them what it is.
There are people out there who are suffering, starving, living in squalor. That is what it is. It is a humanity issue. Every member in this House ought to come aboard and help me to address these grassroots problems. I invite members to do so instead of being so critical about opportunism and all that other hogwash. Get out there and start solving some problems. It is serious.