Mr. Speaker, I apologize. I know that once in a while I get carried away, but I like people to know how many people are in the House of Commons when we are talking about an important issue like the Nisga'a agreement.
I want to point out that the only cost analyses for this Nisga'a agreement that have been available to the people of British Columbia have been the official estimates of the federal and provincial governments. My colleague from Delta—South Richmond said that we had better get something a little more objective on this, so he commissioned R. M. Richardson and Associates to prepare an analysis on the cost of the Nisga'a treaty to B.C. taxpayers.
That analysis has been made public and I want to express to the House some of the findings of the analysis with regard to the Nisga'a agreement. If there is some doubt on the financial aspect, surely it would be prudent for any government and all politicians, regardless of what party they are in, to check it out, particularly if the numbers are at serious variance.
Here is what Richardson found on the analysis. The total cost of the Nisga'a treaty, as measured, is up to $1.5 billion, in fact $1,515,800,000, compared with the official government estimate of $485.8 million.
Somebody might say that R. M. Richardson and Associates are wrong. How far wrong are they? Are they wrong by $1 billion? If they are wrong by $10 million taxpayer dollars should it not be the responsibility of the government to stop and check it out?
We all know the record of the NDP in British Columbia. It does not matter to those folks. They would blow tax dollars like there is no tomorrow, and for the NDP there is no tomorrow. It does not matter to them. However, there is going to be a good dog fight in the next federal election. I would suggest to the Liberal government that it check out this $1 billion discrepancy on that item alone.
The British Columbia government has underestimated crown land values, construction costs of the Nisga'a highway, forest renewal, B.C. spending and third party compensation costs. We had better think about this. Perhaps there is something wrong and we should check it out.
Non-reserve Nisga'a settlement lands, which constitute approximately 1,930 square kilometres, are valued at $406.4 million, compared with the $106.7 million estimate of the Government of British Columbia. This is not $10,000 or $10 million. We are talking about $300 million.
This should not be about making everybody feel good and making sure this goes, being the champions of this group or that group. It should be for all taxpayers across the country because there are a lot of dollars involved. We should reassess the situation. It should not be reassessed by government or government employees. Let somebody else do the job. That is what we did. It was a fair assessment. There was no political ploy.
I call on the government to listen to what we are saying. This valuation includes forest resources at $268.2 million, mineral resources at $13.8 million, water resources at $17.5 million and fisheries resources at $106.9 million.
What about the Nisga'a highway? The Nisga'a highway will cost at least $87 million, compared with the estimate of the Government of British Columbia of $41 million. This Liberal government, just like that, is willing to sign on behalf of young people and on behalf of seniors on fixed incomes who are going to pay the bill.
There are very few members on the other side who are listening to this very important debate. The whole darn government should be in this House listening.