Madam Speaker, Bill C-31 was expected to restore Indian status to about 10,000. It has not given Indian status to around 120,000 or 130,000.
I do not quarrel for a minute with the original intention of Bill C-31, but unfortunately, like so many good things, it has created a different kind of monster that, in my view, as an outsider of the aboriginal community, is doing terrible damage to the aboriginal community.
I also point out that in communities such as Winnipeg, where there are so many urban aboriginals, we have people in poverty and some of them being treated differently simply because of their race. It is the wrong thing to do. We need to revisit it and still maintain the original intention, but it still needs a fix.