Mr. Speaker, I am glad to take up where I left off prior to question period. I will use the few minutes I have left to summarize some of the points I was seeking to make earlier in the day.
First I want to restate my very heartfelt congratulations to the grand chief of the Kanesatake Mohawk people and the band council for the years of hard work that have gone into negotiating this historic settlement. It is not often that we as parliamentarians have an opportunity to take part in something that is so wholly necessary and that in fact makes history.
We are making history here today as we help the Kanesatake Mohawk carve out a new relationship with the federal government. They are casting off or clearing up many of the shortcomings of the former fiscal and legal relationship with the federal government and entering into a whole new era.
Earlier I started to go through some of the long drawn out history of the Kanesatake land claim. I was saying prior to question period that it goes back to 1717. I will not take hon. members through the whole long and ragged history of pre-Confederation negotiations. Suffice it to say that this is the culmination of 200 or 300 years of a maturing relationship.
Both parties should be complimented for the hard work they have done and for the fact that they have managed to undertake this by peaceful means through negotiation and not through any outbursts or violence or road blockades.
I would raise a cautionary note, though, so as not to sound like I am simply a booster for the federal government in this regard. I raise the cautionary note that these new relationships we are entering into with aboriginal communities as they strive to achieve self-government, which we fully endorse, are only as good as the resources they receive. The relationships will stand only if they are followed by implementation.
We have examples. I raise this as a criticism of the federal government. There are examples such as Naskapi Cree people of northern Quebec, who do have a unique individual self-government relationship. They have been complaining for years that ever since they finally got their own details hashed out, the implementation has been so painfully slow, shabby and wholly inadequate that there have been years of frustration.
Even though we are pleased to see the legislative framework put in place today, this whole feeling of goodwill could collapse if the federal government does not deliver all the resources necessary to fully implement the act we are voting on today.
I will use the remaining minute or two I have to restate again how disappointed I am that the House of Commons could not have dealt with this all in one day. After 300 years of tedious, frustrating negotiations we had the opportunity to bring this to its final conclusion today. Unfortunately the Canadian Alliance blocked the unanimous consent needed to go through all stages of reading the bill and voting on the bill in one day.
Let the record show that all parties in the House of Commons, except the Canadian Alliance, wish to see the speedy passage of the bill and the independence and the true self-governance of the Kanesatake Mohawk people.