Madam Speaker, there are a lot of financial implications in the Nisga'a treaty. The federal official opposition represents 24 of the 34 seats in British Columbia. The provincial government put the Nisga'a agreement we are talking about through the provincial legislature using closure. There is a clause in the agreement that hobbles the official opposition federally and provincially.
Both the Liberal official opposition provincially and the Reform Party official opposition federally have some difficulties with the Nisga'a agreement. That is clear to everyone. There is a clause in the agreement whereby no party to the agreement may challenge it once it is ratified. That is a very important clause because it completely hobbles the governments in waiting once they become government. Simply, many of those issues have not been addressed.
I cannot comprehend why the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle would suggest we should roll over and allow the government to ram that agreement through this place without proper debate and without hearing from the people in British Columbia who very much want that opportunity but have been denied it.