Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to be able to stand to speak to this bill. It is a rare privilege, since there are not many people who will have the right to speak due to the fact that the Liberal government by the careful pulling of the strings of their voters on that side said “You have no choice but to vote in favour of time allocation and we are not going to let anybody speak on this after today”. That is shameful in my view.
I remember a number of years ago a colleague of mine at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology where I worked had a little placard on the bulletin board in his office. It is one that is very applicable to our situation here today. It said “If you don't have time to do it right, when will you find time to do it again?” I thought that was a very good principle. We need to get things right.
I am not speaking here only of a united alternative, I am speaking generally of what our purpose in parliament is. It is to make rules and regulations which govern our country, which govern our people. We need to get it right. If we do not get it right all we have to do is look at history to see the number of countries around the world which have suffered immensely because of the fact that their government structure was not established in a correct way.
What is wrong here? First, I would like to talk about this process. Why would the government in this particular instance insist on invoking time allocation? It is a mystery to me. I think that the purpose of government, the purpose of the minister, the purpose of the Prime Minister should be to bring a solution to the long-festering problem which we have had on land claims. Let us bring a solution that works.
Overriding all of those considerations is that thing which occupies our minds so much these days, national unity. We need to be together on it. We need to make sure that members of our society, all Canadian citizens, are respectful of each other and that they respect that the limitations which apply to one apply to others.
A request has been made by the official opposition and indeed by Bloc members to make small amendments to this bill.
I worked for a while on a school board. I liked the form of democracy in the school board somewhat better than what we have here. We did not have bills at our school board, but we had motions. If the motion was not a good motion, a number of members would speak against it. When I happened to be the chairman for a while I would ask “All those in favour?” and maybe one or two hands would go up. I would say “Who is opposed?” and the other 13 hands would go up. I would simply declare the motion defeated and we would go on with our business.
What do we do here? Somehow we have this idiotic process. I am not speaking of any individual member, but we have this idiotic process. Parenthetically I have to say that it is mathematically possible and maybe even probable that occasionally a bill might be brought forward by a minister that is not perfect. That is possible. Yet we have this idiotic process which says that unless all members on the government side vote for it somehow they are being disloyal. I contend that they are being disloyal if they vote for something that is not as good as it could be. Instead, it is reversed and then we have the government forcing this vote through. Now we are not even able to speak on it.
One might ask why we do not use the time that we have to debate the issue. It is bigger than that. We are dealing with a relationship among Canadians. We are dealing with people who live next door to their neighbours.
All of us have neighbours. In my instance I have neighbours from a wide spectrum of national backgrounds. They have different language backgrounds, different ethnic backgrounds and we get along just fine.
What happens if we have rules brought in by a distant, disjointed, ineffective federal government that controls how we live next to our neighbours, who happen to be natives living on reserve lands or on native lands as they are called? What happens if we do not do that right? It introduces friction that could otherwise be resolved. All we are asking is that we take some very, very simple measures.
This government could have avoided the embarrassment of the vote at noon today. That was embarrassing. It is incredibly embarrassing that there is no thought for democracy in this place. “It is my way or no way. It is my way or the highway”. That cannot be.
Part of the legislative process, in my view, is that we also make sure that the people who are affected have an opportunity to communicate. They have done so to a certain degree already. Some of my colleagues have referred to a number of different letters that they have received. We are dealing not only with members of municipal councils who are concerned. We are not dealing only as the government tends to do, with those people who form the leadership of the natives. What we need to do is to make sure that the input from grassroots natives is also taken into account. We need to make sure that we hear them. They have some very genuine concerns and we need to hear them.
I cannot for the life of me understand why this government would be so reluctant to enter into a few simple amendments and say “Yes, that is a good idea. Let us adopt it. Let us correct this slightly flawed legislation to make it the best bill possible”, instead of allowing it to just be jammed through in its present mediocre form.
In conclusion, it is atrocious of the government to set up within the nation a separate set of nations without having an appropriate governance system. It is inappropriate to do that. It is awful that the government is suggesting that there can be pockets of municipal-like governments that are not subject to the same rules as other adjacent municipalities.
We are asking for a very simple amendment, that when the law is passed first nations must obey the rules and laws of the municipal acts of the provinces in which they exist. They have to enter into meaningful negotiations.
It is atrocious that people who have been leasing land in the area to be affected can essentially have their life savings and their homes wiped out. There is no protection for them. I do not believe that is right. The government should be paying attention to the very legitimate rights of landowners and investors who have put their life savings into their properties.
Prior to the bill becoming law some local band councils have been driving the value of property essentially to zero, putting lease rates so high that they cannot afford to stay there. It is unconscionable that the values are down and they cannot afford to sell. They ought not to be doing that.
I urge members to support these amendments. Let us do that instead of just ramming it through like a bull in a china shop. Let us listen to each other. Let us listen to the reasoning. If it is valid, let us make the changes that are necessary. Then we will have an opposition that will be supportive of the legislation as improved.