Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-9, an act to give effect to the Nisga'a final agreement.
First, I want to assure the Nisga'a people, other great native groups and all my constituents that my interest in the bill is to address the need for a better future for the Nisga'a people and all those under the Indian Act, in relationship with each other and other Canadians.
We understand that after years of negotiation within a framework dictated by the Indian Act but controlled by the federal government and Indian affairs, most Nisga'a leaders feel that they have no alternative but this agreement. British Columbians have been wrongly told that it is this deal or nothing.
Official opposition MPs are not similarly tainted. We question and oppose because we do not believe the agreement is, in the long term perspective, in the best interests of the Nisga'a people, the long range interests of aboriginals throughout B.C., or in the interests of the people of Canada.
Canada can do much better than this. It is first the Nisga'a of future generations who will have to live with the practical consequences of the so-called final agreement. All British Columbians are being experimented with by an Ottawa mentality on aboriginal affairs. We should therefore pay particular attention in the House to what B.C. MPs say on the matter. Members of the House should also recognize what all British Columbians already know; that the NDP government in B.C. has manipulated much of the agreement process. It has never had a clear, specific political mandate from British Columbians to deliver such an agreement.
On this day, much is before the courts as the deal drives a wedge between aboriginal groups, between British Columbians and will likely disturb much across the country. Ontario is going to feel the effect of the agreement or arrangement in the future. It can only be hoped that by the time the debate is over Canadians from all parts of Canada will understand that the bill and the agreement to which it gives effect have ramifications for them. It is my estimation that many of those impacts are negative. In respect of bringing the country together, it is negative, from the aspect of the principle of equality and equity for all, where we need to strive to realize better than before, one people, one land, one land.
Sadly, the agreement goes in the other direction. The fiscal impacts will be negative. The resource management impacts will be negative, like those of the Marshall case. The impact on aboriginal and non-aboriginal relations will be negative. This is not simply a bill or an agreement affecting a particular group of aboriginal people in British Columbia. The nature and style of it will copied throughout Canada.
My constituents seem to be telling me that the deal appears to divide people and perpetuate discord and likely will not significantly help local social life, to give a hand up out of subsistence levels. My community has goodwill and deeply desires aboriginal success so that we all together fulfil talent and achieve more cultural respect, autonomy and self-reliance.
I clearly speak for my community when I say that the voters want native peoples to succeed, maintain identity and have all of what the aboriginal forefathers have desired for their people. Sadly, the agreement has the potential to bring more sorrow and disappointment when the grand objectives and overstated government media displays are not realized by aboriginal young people who have had expectations raised. When they are dashed they will seek someone to blame.
There are major defects in the deal. The first is that the current approach grants special legal, social and economic status to people based on membership in a minority group. That is what “Status Indian” means and is defined in law. It arises out of a confusion between “rights” and “benefits” and how best to move forward.
The second defect is that it provides for undemocratic and unaccountable governments. The current approach to aboriginal political development fails to demand or to ensure genuine fiscal and democratic accountability from local aboriginal governments to their own people. Therefore, aboriginal people do not have the most elementary grip on their own governmental institutions.
There is a grassroots movement starting among ordinary aboriginals demanding fiscal and democratic accountability from their leaders and from Indian affairs. In frustration, they come to our party when they are shut out by their local leadership and when their pleas are ignored by the federal government. So far their voice has been largely unheeded. I see no clear reflection of their concerns in the agreement we are being asked to quickly pass this week.
The third big defect in the approach that is perpetuated in the bill is that it is based largely on socialist economics, collective ownership of land and resources, government ownership of land and resources and excessive regulation with little market discipline. There is an absence on reserves of the most basic of property rights and contract rights. There is a near absence of free markets in housing, labour and capital.
Where has all this worn out traditional approach led? Where has special status and socialist economics led? It has not led to prosperity for aboriginal people. It has yielded poverty, misery and despair for too many. It has also led to a series of court cases that are further poisoning relations between aboriginals and non-aboriginals. In addition, the billions of dollars that Canadians commit to Indian affairs every year is now leading to an additional contingent liability to all Canadians of up to a possible $200 billion.
Now specifically when one reads the terms of the agreement, too many times there appears words to the effect that details will be worked out in the future without guarantees of democratic process or accountability to an electorate. Specifically, the Nisga'a alone will be able to determine who is on their list of being considered a Nisga'a person and who is not. They will make their own laws about who can legally be a Nisga'a. Canada has very limited power about who is or is not a Canadian, and certainly the provinces and municipalities do not control entry and entitlement to vote or to receive benefits through control of citizenship membership status. The specific term “Nisga'a citizenship” is used in the agreement, and they will be able to banish or de-list or refuse to admit anyone they desire according to the rules they have yet to pass within their government.
If there is a conflict in this area between federal and provincial law, it clearly states on page 167, sections 39 and 40 that Nisga'a law is paramount. This is a sweeping powerful tool for any government to control dissidents or political opposition from entitlements and participation. It is a concern when the use of banishment and other disenfranchised tools is well known in current aboriginal practice in Canada.
This is just one example of the well-meaning but fatally flawed construction of this misguided agreement. I do not believe in special legal status for anyone, and most British Columbians never have. It is our view to Quebec or any group. This is a formula for social disaster. It is different from targeted social benefits that can help.
The world is changing rapidly and if Canadians are to be able to continue to provide food and shelter for themselves in the global village, they will have to adapt to changing ways to participate in the world economy. The key is full participation in the world, not isolation from it. However, in order to participate and thereby benefit, one needs to purchase an admittance ticket. Stamped on that ticket of admittance to obtain sustenance in the new economy are the words “skills” and “education”. That ticket must be purchased through individual effort and merit.
The agreement does little to anticipate the future of the world and how all of us need to be ready to participate and earn the basic necessities of life. We all must “earn” our way by creating wealth that comes from being in a market. Indeed, most of the employment on Nisga'a lands will either be with the Nisga'a government or with the Nisga'a government owned corporations. The isolated socialist collective of Nisga'a will likely remain dependent if their members do not move to participate in the global economy.
I do not think the specific terms will help average individuals within the territory of the agreement. It is hard to see how lasting goodwill will come when so many basic principles of democracy, economics and accountability have been violated. However, form often follows function and when wrong ideas and false assumptions narrow the range of choices, the shape of destiny will always be sadly lacking, if not bringing deep sorrow.
The mandate to negotiate and the manner in which it was done by B.C. politicians is discredited. The arrangement will not bring about lasting reconciliation. It certainly is not final in the ordinary sense of paying.
Much is to be worked out in the future and it is written in vague terms. Fairness is very elusive in the package. Its emphasis is to separate rather than bring together. Legal equality principles have been abandoned. In such experiments we must support equality, democracy, accountability, the coupling of entitlement with responsibility, tolerance of diversity and mobility rights so they are intertwined in settlements with Canadian natives. It is of grave importance when we assess the proposal for embedding by treaty small closed societies in a large, complex and open society that itself is struggling to keep its place in a changing world.
Although my speaking time has run out, Canadians will be dealing with this agreement for generations to come and the social disturbance and shattered dreams will likely perpetuate for a long time.