Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for both the tone and the content of her speech. She has actually done something to elevate the whole standard of debate we have been hearing all day today. I thank her for pointing out some amazing facts that we should keep in mind.
These people have lived for 10,000 years in the Nass Valley with their own traditional ways of governance and their own traditional cultural values, et cetera. Those 10,000 years make 100 years of persecution and cultural genocide actually seem like a fairly short period of time. Maybe that is why we see such great stoicism and patience on their part.
I want to speak about the point the hon. member made, that it is classic white arrogance and Eurocentricism for us to think that the only way of governance is our own British parliamentary system. I would like to share one story with the House.
I took part in the Charlottetown aboriginal hearings. I was sitting with a group of aboriginal women, one of whom was saying that in her culture and community women were not allowed to run for chief. Everybody shook their heads and said that was terrible. Then she said that the men were not allowed to vote. Somehow these people over hundreds and thousands of years have found a pretty interesting way to make sure that the chief is accountable, et cetera. That is just one example.
As a point of clarification, I have a question for the hon. member. She pointed out a number of clarifications about taxation, et cetera, to try to put to bed some of the fear-mongering and the misinformation being spread around British Columbia and all of western Canada.
Is it true that in the case of income tax the Nisga'a government and its corporations will be treated the same as a municipality? Is it also true that the Nisga'a government will not be able to tax non-Nisga'a residents on Nisga'a land? Finally, is it true that the Nisga'a taxation power will not limit or displace federal or provincial taxation powers? Could the hon. member clarify some of those things for the House?