Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be able to conclude the debate this evening on this motion put forward by the Reform Party.
I just returned to the House after a week of public hearings in the beautiful province of British Columbia. I will begin by thanking all those citizens who participated, both directly and indirectly, in that process and for their views, which have been considered in the House and will be considered throughout the debate on this important process.
I stand before the House today not only to show my personal and the government's support for the proposed legislation to ratify the Nisga'a final agreement, but also to clarify once and for all the many reasons why a referendum in British Columbia would be the wrong thing to do.
I am here to ask: What Nisga'a treaty are the members of the opposition talking about, the real Nisga'a final agreement before us or the mythical one that they purposely continue to misrepresent?
I do not think we can categorize any of the opposition party members as forward-thinkers, least of all their leader. If they had their way they would subject their version of the Nisga'a final agreement to a British Columbia province-wide referendum. They claim that the treaty will be an amendment to the Canadian constitution and that it therefore triggers a referendum under legislation in effect in British Columbia.
If they had read the final agreement, which my minister has suggested today, went out into the communities with those concerned citizens that they purport to represent and worked page by page and paragraph and paragraph through that treaty, they would have come to no other conclusion than that this was not a constitutional amendment.
This is a good treaty. It is good for the people of Nisga'a. It is good for their neighbours who have said so. It is good for the people of British Columbia and, therefore, I believe for all of us. They would see for themselves that section 8 of the general provisions chapter clearly states that the agreement does not alter the constitution. In fact, we put that in the agreement specifically in anticipation of these questions.