First, Mr. Speaker, I regret that the member and other members in the opposition have not risen above partisan politics to get on with the very important discussion we need to have. Somehow there is a perception by some opposition members that every first nations citizen right across the country has the same view. First nations citizens are no different from non-native citizens. They all have very strong views of how and what we shall do together to improve the lives of their communities. To suggest that one group or another represents all first nations citizens would be a stretch of the imagination here in this place.
Let me tell hon. members what we are attempting to do as a government. I think we all agree in this place that the status quo is not acceptable, that the status quo is not on. If we take a look at the statistics it does not take much to realize that the status quo in the next generation, particularly in places like western Canada, will cause us tremendous difficulty as a nation because of the fast-growing young aboriginal population that wants in to the economy, that wants in to Canada as part of their heritage. We cannot get there by using a piece of legislation that is 126 years old as our template.
What we are asking for from first nations citizens and from Parliament is not to get into the rhetoric but to get into what kind of legislation we would put forward to improve the lives of first nations citizens. How have we assured ourselves of a respectful debate? We had probably the largest consultation in the history of our government, in which 10,000 first nations citizens participated in the last year. More important, we put in a joint ministerial advisory council that was led by first nations and advised the minister on what kind of legislation we would have.
Finally, just to make sure that we would have a respectful debate, I as a minister in the government sent this legislation to committee before second reading. Those who might be new to the House, who did not spend as much time on the backbenches as I did as a member of Parliament, will know that when we send a bill to committee before second reading we send a message that we are allowing the committee to make fundamental changes to that bill if it is the wish of the committee. That is the direction I would like to see the committee take if it believes this legislation is not good enough and needs to be improved. The reason for this is that we cannot afford to get it wrong. We need to get it right for first nations citizens in the next generation.