Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has provided me with the opportunity to speak for a few more minutes, which I appreciate.
There are some fundamental areas in which federal laws will always prevail. It is good to set that table. Those areas deal with peace, order and good government. This totally embraces the criminal law of Canada.
There have been suggestions that somehow Westbank can legitimize things that cannot be legitimized in other parts of Canada. That is simply not correct. Westbank has embraced and adopted the criminal law of Canada.
Other areas are the protection of health and safety of Canadians, intellectual property, broadcasting and telecommunications, national defence, security and public safety. Some of the areas I did not talk about over which Westbank has jurisdiction relate to the wills and estates of members ordinarily resident on Westbank lands. This ties in at times with what I was talking about in terms of marital assets, obviously in the case of death. That is important. That whole area is very significant.
Westbank First Nation has jurisdiction in relation to public works, community infrastructure and services. The way it reads in the agreement is that Westbank law shall prevail over federal law to the extent of any conflict so long as Westbank First Nation health and safety standards and technical codes are at least equivalent to federal health and safety standards and technical codes.
It is the same thing in terms of traffic and transportation. The Westbank First Nation has jurisdiction, but for greater certainty, this shall be designed to be at least equivalent in effect to federal and provincial regulations, safety standards and technical codes. It is the same thing with business licensing regulations.
One thing that Westbank wants to make very clear is that federal and provincial laws apply in respect to the accreditation and certification of professions and trades, including the education professions. This agreement has been very careful in many areas.
On the enforcement of Westbank law, I already mentioned that the enforcement procedures can be comparable to but not greater than those set out in similar federal or provincial legislation. The agreement specifies that the RCMP shall render these services. Basically they are already doing that, only they are doing it under memoranda of agreement that were signed by Canada, British Columbia and the Westbank or the First Nations Community Policing Service dating back to 1992 and 1993. Those are some of the areas.
On health services, Westbank has jurisdiction in relation to the regulation of the practice of traditional Okanagan medicine and the regulation of practitioners of traditional Okanagan medicine.
For culture and language it is the same thing. A very important and significant area is the environment, where they have jurisdiction. The qualification is that these will be at least equivalent in standard to those set out in the federal and provincial laws of general application. In the event of a conflict dealing with protection and conservation of the environment, federal law shall apply. The same goes for environmental assessments. These are important things for people to realize.
There have been some questions about financial accountability. The Westbank First Nation agreement is very precise on financial accountability. The standards will be those recommended by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Another area which some people have expressed questions about relates to people's rights to access the court system. This is covered in that the agreement specifies that the judicial review procedure act of British Columbia applies to the Westbank First Nation. This allows individuals to go to the provincial court system independent of any appeal mechanism. Prosecutions for violation of Westbank law are heard in the B.C. provincial court using summary conviction procedures of the Criminal Code of Canada.
Those are the mains topics that I did not cover in my initial 20 minutes.