Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my hon. colleague, who made a very good analysis of the problem, if he could expand just a bit on this checkerboard of land that is purchased by the Indian bands in various parts of the municipality.
It is not automatic that these lands become part of a reserve because it seems to me that the Indian band may purchase these lands and those lands are then held in fee simple. If they are held in fee simple, then the tax base that exists for other land in that area is precisely the same on the land owned by the Indian band as would be the case if another person owned that land.
Is it the contention that what the municipality should be looking for is some sort of a shift in legislation or some predictable way in which the decision would be made by the federal government as to how these fee simple lands that have been purchased by the Indian bands from individuals will become part of a reserve?