Madam Speaker, I have been to incredibly remote areas in my own riding that are in conditions of absolute poverty. It is unbelievable to see conditions like that in this country.
I am glad the hon. member brought up the issue of accountability and how he sees that as being important to the future of aboriginal peoples. I could not agree more. Accountability is something that is an absolute cornerstone and it has to be given much more emphasis by the government than it has.
When I talk about accountability, I do not mean accountability to bureaucrats in Ottawa, the people in the Department of Indian Affairs. The chiefs and councils must be accountable to the people they represent. The people on the reserve must be able to hold their public officials to account, to open the books and to have transparent financing of money that flows through the chiefs and council, because right now that just is not the case.
Almost every day I get a call to either my riding office or my Ottawa office from somebody on a reserve telling a horror story of a chief or a council member, or whoever it may be, hoarding money, which was intended for the benefit of all people on the reserve, and using it to buy a new truck or something else. The horror stories we hear are truly unbelievable.
It is incumbent upon the government, not just in this agreement but with regard to aboriginal governments right across the country, to bring in real accountability mechanisms, not to bureaucrats in Ottawa but to the people on the reserves. The local governments must be accountable to the people they represent.