Madam Speaker, I thank you and I am very pleased to take part in this debate on the Nisga'a final agreement.
As mentioned by the Bloc Quebecois critic, the hon. member for Saint-Jean, we are looking forward to having a treaty such as the one proposed by the government adopted by the House within a reasonable timeframe.
Our position is of course totally different from that of the Reform Party, which certainly has the right to express its views in a democracy. However, we can only feel sorry for those who are looking for equity and equality and for those who have a sense of history when a position like the one put forward by the Reformers meets with a favourable response in this House.
Over the past number of years, several authorities have recognized that aboriginals do have rights.
I am thinking of course of the UN, which established a working group on native rights a few years ago. I am also thinking of the Erasmus-Dussault commission, of course.
We are talking about a nation obviously. A nation is a group of individuals who have control over a territory, and who share one vernacular language, the will to live together and a common history. Basically, these are the attributes of a nation.
Nobody can question the fact that the Nisga'a are a nation. Theirs is the nation which, under the proposed treaty, will be granted 1,992 square kilometres of land that they will manage on their own, in compliance with the Canadian charter, since we are dealing with the Canadian context, and in compliance with the criminal code.
Earlier, I heard a member say "We should worry about the Bloc Quebecois making connections with their plans for sovereignty-association". We do, but we also make a point of adding that we realize that the Nisga'a reality will stand part of the Canadian experience, while the coming into being of sovereignty-association will bring about a relationship of equality within a context which will obviously be different.
The most important thing with regard to the Nisga'a initiative, just as with the liberation of the Quebec people, is the respect of nations and the specificity of both partners. I would like to quote from one of the key passages of the Erasmus-Dussault report.
We will recall that the Erasmus-Dussault commission was chaired by a Quebec appeal court judge and lasted nearly three years. Through this commission, we were invited to recognize the right of the native peoples to self-government; a model was even put forward, which was different depending on whether it dealt with an urban or rural reality.
I would like to remind the House today, and especially our Reform colleagues, that the Erasmus-Dussault report said “Only nations have a right of self-determination. Only at the nation level will aboriginal people have the numbers necessary to exercise a broad governance mandate and to supply a large pool of expertise”.
If we are to lend any credence to the Erasmus-Dussault commission and if we want to make a connection with the treaty before us, we have to recognize that the Nisga'a are a nation and therefore have the right to be considered as such.
I think we also have to stress the fact that what we have here sets an interesting precedent, because if this treaty were to be implemented, the Nisga'a nation would no longer be subject to the Indian Act.
I was not always in the House when the Reform members addressed this issue, but whenever I was here, I was sorry to notice that they never talked about a very positive impact, which is the fact that we will be giving a nation the means to better control their development. The Erasmus-Dussault commission came to the same conclusion: “We have to put an end to the trusteeship system and ensure that the Nisga'a nations can truly develop by also putting an end to the rule of transfer payments”.
This is what is going to happen to the Nisga'a nation during the next 15 years. They will forego part of the transfer payments they are now entitled to, but, in return, they will gain new financial responsibilities.
I also want to remind the House that the Nisga'a nation will continue to define itself and be regulated, under the treaty, by the provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982, and the Constitution Act, 1982, dealing with the prerogatives granted to native peoples.
I do not know how to put it more strongly. This is an interesting treaty because it puts an end to a trusteeship system and paves the way for a model that we, on this side of the House, could be tempted to export.
As hon. members are aware, all members of the Bloc Quebecois can stand up with pride and remember that we belong to a province, one that is to become a country one day, as members know. We belong to an order of political reality that was very quick to recognize the rights of its own first nations. It is interesting to look at the accomplishments of Quebec as far as the aboriginal reality is concerned.
I would like to share four elements of that reality, a reality that makes us all the more in favour of ratification of the Nisga'a treat, the object of very broad consensus.