Mr. Speaker, that is a pretty hard act to follow, but I will do my best.
I agree with the hon. member for Wild Rose. It seems with this bill we are putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Some may ask why I have spoken so many times on bills that relate to natives? I speak on anything related to my constituency. Because I have a lot of natives who live in the constituency on reserves, I am profoundly interested in them. I am profoundly interested in what they say to me.
I also have received phone calls from people telling me something very loud and clear and no one can escape it. Get your head out of the sand in the House of Commons. Wake up and see what is out there in the real world.
As the chief said to me the other day, how can we have an extension of a business arrangement with land management when we do not have a government to proceed with those affairs? There are fancy terms like new partnership, but we will not have a new partnership until we have accountability. The government has no business whatsoever in bringing forth bills like this until it establishes the basic ground rules for self-government.
Why is it not doing that? Why do we have no self-government? What is it afraid of? It simply does not want to face reality. Anyone can say we can have partnership, land expansion and all kinds of new businesses, but no one would be happier than Reform to see a business success survive on the reserve survive on new land. We would all love that. But if they do not have the tools to establish that business and govern that business, what do we think will happen? The member for Wild Rose stated it very clearly and saw where the money was going. There is no accountability.
I know Indians are worried about accountability and for the most part it is quite transparent. How can members opposite put out well over $6 billion with no accountability for that money?
If we are to establish a land venture and a business venture, if we are to bring in the people who want to come into line with the new millennium, we cannot expect them to do so until from the grassroots up they know about government and business and until they can walk with their heads high and know they can go to the office any time to get an accurate account of how the money was spent. Until the government wakes up to the fact that it will continue to blow billions of dollars without having accountability, it should not expect a partnership.
I will give an example from the House. Here we have the Bloc that wants to separate from Canada. When it does so, it will negotiate the terms. It is completely backwards. We should be negotiating the terms so intelligent people in Quebec and in the rest of Canada can know what the separation is about. The same thing exists with Bill C-49. We are creating land management. We hope we will create business associated with the land management but we have not provided the people who need it the most with a model for self-government. Shame on this government.
Shame on this government for ever using the term partnership. This is the most important social issue facing Canada today. This issue is so profound that it is growing every day. And what is the government doing about it? Nothing. The minister of Indian affairs says it is because we want a new partnership. I know the Liberal Party wants to condemn me for being anti-native. Do not come to my constituency or talk to my natives and say that. They want self-government and they want the leadership of this government to provide them with that.