Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Fundy—Royal who has always put forth quite a number of intelligent suggestions in this House in the past.
In the crisis taking place today among aboriginal communities there are three things that can be done, scrap the Indian Act, have a phasing out of the department of Indian affairs, and those moneys can be put into developing programs for the aboriginal people to deal with issues such as counselling, substance abuse, economic development, giving the aboriginal people the tools to become employable and take care of themselves.
As my hon. colleague from Fundy—Royal knows from his experience in the maritimes, the people in New Brunswick are chopping down trees. That is illegal and they should be dealt with accordingly but the lesson behind that is that these people now have the ability, albeit illegally, to take care of themselves. They have the ability to work. They have the ability to earn money. They have the ability to take care of themselves and their families. As a result, we have seen a dramatic decline in some of the social ills that are being predatory on aboriginal communities.
If we can do that it would be the greatest gift we could offer aboriginal people in giving them the powers to work with us to build a stronger country.
On the Senate amendment, the member knows very clearly that we have pursued a course of a triple-E Senate for a long time. I am encouraged that he supports that principle and I hope he will continue to work with us to making that a reality.