Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of my constituents of Okanagan—Coquihalla to speak to the amendments before us today in Group No. 1 of Bill C-49, the first nations land management act.
As I have been listening this evening I can tell that we in this country have a lot of work to do when it comes to these issues. I listened to Liberal members across the way making allegations about the Reform Party which are without substance, without foundation.
I can tell members that in my riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla I work diligently with native bands. I have intervened with the minister on several occasions. I have tried to assist when it comes to economic development and when it comes to situations regarding airport land transfers to our municipality. I have worked with our native band in Penticton and I have worked on developing our native university, which will be breaking ground hopefully in the spring.
Therefore I take a great deal of exception to the comments and remarks made by members across the way when in fact all we are trying to do in the official opposition is put forward some amendments that will make a piece of legislation better for all Canadians.
It is important to note that the Reform Party does support native self-government. The Reform Party supports a delegated level of self-government for natives. That is very important because what we see in this bill is self-government that is totally under the control of the bands in question.
A couple of months ago I introduced a bill in this House of Commons which arose from a problem on native land. What I was trying to do was help my constituents by dealing with the issue that the Residential Tenancy Act does not apply to native land.
In this particular situation, which I brought forward to the House in the form of a bill, septic systems had failed and left some 50 residents being evicted from their homes with no protection whatsoever from the Residential Tenancy Act in the province of B.C.
That bill did not pass because many parties in this House again raised the question and said that this was somehow racially motivated, that I was being insensitive to the cultural needs of the economic development of Indian bands. That was not the case at all. My bill was absolutely colour blind. This bill should also be 100% colour blind. But it is not. It is not because it is granting special status to a group of Canadians.
I will give members another example. In the Westbank Indian band there are 514 natives. There are 7,000 non-natives living on that band's land. What happens to those people's rights? Why are those people's rights not considered in this piece of legislation? Why is that not the case?
Last week I met with the residents of Bayview, a strata-type development on Westbank land consisting of some 200 homes. These people thought they were leasing land from the crown. No one ever told them about Bill C-49. No one ever told them that the life savings they put into their $200,000 or $300,000 homes was not what is facing us today with the implications in Bill C-49. That was never explained to those people. Now they have a situation where some of the retaining walls are crumbing. They are falling down because building codes were not followed. That is leaving those residents with a $600,000 liability because building codes were not followed on this piece of land.
This is not the only case in the province of B.C. Several times tonight we have heard the situation in which the Musqueam have found themselves. The property values of those homes, which were $400,000 to $800,000, have plummeted to nothing. This piece of legislation is not going to help those people.
We believe in a delegated type of self-government that would be controlled federally.
It was mentioned here this evening, and I mentioned it as well, that the Condominium Act of British Columbia does not apply to the people at Bayview and Westbank, nor does the Municipal Act and the Residential Tenancy Act. There is no protection for those people whatsoever. Bill C-49 does not do anything to protect those folks. What do we tell them? Do they not deserve to have the protection of their federal government as well?
I think they do. That is why we have brought forward these amendments to this bill. It is not because of the ridiculous argument that we do not believe in self-government. We do.
I want to see treaties in the province of British Columbia. I want to end the uncertainty that is caused by not having treaties. I want each and every person, regardless of whether they are native or non-native, whether they live on reserve land or on non-reserve land, to have access to the laws equally, with every right and every power that they have at their disposal. We cannot grant these leases, especially with situations like Westbank and those that are happening throughout the province of B.C., and not ensure that that will happen.
The official opposition desires a better relationship with the Indian peoples of Canada. We want to see that all people have the same powers and rights and that everyone is respected.
In particular, I cannot stand here and say that I will vote for this bill because this bill is not colour blind. It gives special powers to a designated group of people and that is wrong. Until we learn that, we will never get this type of legislation right. I urge the Liberals to pass our amendments because they are the only things that will improve this bill.