Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to take the opportunity to describe how the Nisga'a final agreement deals with private property and land ownership. My comments will be particularly helpful to our Reform Party colleagues. It has become painfully obvious to the rest of us in the House that they have not read the agreement and do not understand it.
Members of the official opposition have suggested that individual Nisga'a citizens will not be able to own private property on Nisga'a land. They also suggested that members of Nisga'a governments will be unable to exert undue influence over Nisga'a citizens because of lack of security over tenure to their homes. This is simply not true. Let me take the opposition through what the final agreement really says.
Through the final agreement the Nisga'a will own their lands in fee simple, the highest estate in land known in law. No longer will the crown hold the Nisga'a land in trust. No longer will the minister of Indian affairs have to approve every use made of their lands. Nisga'a lands will not be lands reserved for Indians. The reserve system and the application of the Indian Act to the Nisga'a will end.
The Nisga'a will own their land and its resources, other than water, submerged lands, and the private properties which were excepted from Nisga'a land. If they choose to do so, the Nisga'a will be able to create private parcels of Nisga'a lands and dispose of them without the consent of either Canada or British Columbia. There is the essence of private property ownership.
As long as the Nisga'a meet the requirements set out in the final agreement, they will also be able to register these parcels in the provincial land registry system. This is something that Nisga'a leaders have indicated they wish to do once they have the legal means to do so, and the political direction from their constituency, the Nisga'a people. The owners of parcels registered in the land title system would realize all the advantages and securities of the system, just as private property landowners enjoy those advantages.
None of this is available to the Nisga'a people under the Indian Act, yet some members opposite would seek to prevent this significant advancement through nonsensical amendments which they have proposed. What is the purpose of this obstructionism? These same members purport to represent the interests of grassroots Indian people. Do they not want private property ownership rights for the Nisga'a people? Do they not want to end the application of the Indian Act and the Indian reserve system for the Nisga'a people?
Maybe the Reform members opposite should take the time to talk to Nisga'a people. The Nisga'a people in a clear and substantial majority strongly supported this agreement and would stand to benefit from being treated like other Canadians for the first time.
What some members opposite have missed is that through this agreement the Nisga'a will finally have responsibility for managing their own land. If their democratically elected government decides to do so, they can create parcels of fee simple land, register them in the land titles system, sell them to anyone they choose and allow them to be mortgaged. None of those opportunities exist today under the Indian Act. That is but one of the many reasons why the Nisga'a final agreement is such a significant step forward.
The official opposition has suggested that individual Nisga'a will not have private property rights and that Nisga'a governments will own the housing communally. The opposite is true. Appendices C5 and C6 list many hundreds of individual Nisga'a, in fact all the Nisga'a, who now have homes in four villages. Appendix C5 lists those Nisga'a who now have certificates of possession. Appendix C6 lists those Nisga'a whose current band council have allocated housing.
All those names in both appendices will receive the same private property rights to their homes. Those rights will include the right to exclusively possess and use their land, in effect individual ownership of land and improvements. This ownership right can be passed down through their estates and marital property settlements. These rights cannot be expropriated by Nisga'a government.
Therefore, it is not accurate to suggest that the treaty does not provide for individual property rights or that residents will be exposed to arbitrary decisions of Nisga'a government. In fact this agreement provides a new level of security for Nisga'a families and a range of opportunities for economic development of land which are not currently available to the Nisga'a.
The members of the official opposition have their own views of what is best for the Nisga'a people. That is the old way of doing business, to arbitrarily choose for aboriginal people what we think is best for them. The Reform Party is living in the past. This is the past that they claim to condemn but for which in fact they would have future generations condemned to repeat by virtue of a lack of vision and a lack of trust and the strength, spirit and capabilities of the aboriginal people.
The Nisga'a have chosen differently. That is their right. Through peaceful negotiations, patience, dedication and a spirit of co-operation and compromise, all three parties to this agreement have chosen differently. They have chosen to move forward in a responsible positive way that will benefit the Nisga'a people and respect the interests of all other Canadians.
It is time for everyone in the House to uphold this choice for a positive future by rejecting these motions and supporting Bill C-9.
The Reform Party has tabled nearly 500 amendments to the Nisga'a treaty. It is clear that they have no interest in seeing a conclusion to this most important treaty which would allow for self-government of the Nisga'a people. The Reform Party says it wants more time so it can do consultations. Let me remind the Reform Party that the Nisga'a people have been negotiating for 130 years to have the Nisga'a agreement brought to fruition. We see the sons, the grandsons and the great grandsons of the original negotiators that first tried to get justice for their people. One hundred and thirty years is a long time.
It is time for justice to be done. Most members in the House, with the exception of those in the Reform Party, rise to support the final agreement of the Nisga'a people. We will do so with pride. I am very proud to be in the House to partake in this.