Mr. Speaker, it would be difficult for me to disagree with the suggestion that he has made. In fact, some members of the Squamish reserve made that same suggestion to me at least two years ago because they had been trying unsuccessfully for years to trace how the money was being spent on their reserve.
It appears that the reserve in total receives something like $35 million a year from its Park Royal investments, from other business investments and from taxpayer transfers. That $35 million virtually disappears, with an inability of individual band members to really track where it is going. They bring anecdotal evidence to me in my office of chiefs who get brand new cars every few years. Out of the 16 chiefs on reserve, at least 14 do not live on the reserve. They live in the upper middle class North Vancouver or West Vancouver area, in very classy homes, with brand new cars, while the majority of the people on the reserve live in appalling conditions.
The city of North Vancouver, which has an annual budget of about $35 million, has an excellent quality of life, high standard of living, paved streets and good services. In that community is this native reserve with 1,100 residents and it gets approximately the same amount of money for its administration, but they live in almost third world conditions.
We have to ask the question why can the people of North Vancouver, with $35 million, have a wonderful city with high prosperity, good education, wonderful services. However in the middle of Canada's fourth largest city is this reserve with the same amount of money, yet the streets are unpaved, houses are falling down, people are living in trailers and the illiteracy is appalling.
People come to my office from that reserve to meet with me because they cannot write a letter because they are illiterate. It shocks me how appalling the conditions are. Some responsibility has to be taken by the chiefs on those reserves.
I agree with the member. There has to be access to information so we can find out where that money goes and help better the conditions for the people there. A key to the whole issue is getting democracy on those reserves, something the chiefs are resisting. Until those chiefs are democratically elected and accountable to the band members, I do not think we will go very far.