Mr. Speaker, from the member's comments on taxation, he has reinforced my point that the only ones who would benefit from the first nations being able to get loans would be the financial institutions. Ultimately, the taxpayers would have to pay the additional cost because there is no property tax base from which to get the taxes.
There is no question that as school trustees we might know about borrowing money, but I also know that where I come from we often did not have to borrow money in a sense because we had a property tax base. We probably had an average income of $45,000 to $50,000 within the area I represented. We could afford to pay taxes. I do not begrudge my taxes. I receive great benefits. My water and sewer are provided. I have fire and ambulance service. I have the services of a hospital. The roads are cleared. All three of my kids received schooling for 12 years.
First nations, in most cases, do not have the incomes coming in but they do have treaties in which the government said that they would have certain services. As I have said before, if the government could get out of the treaties, the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals would have done it a long time ago. The reality is that the treaties are there and the government will have to own up to them. The sooner the government owns up to them the less cost it will ultimately be from taxpayers dollars but less cost to the destruction of first nations people as well.
I will not try to hide from the fact that the provincial tax was brought back into place in Saskatchewan. I am originally from Saskatchewan. I know that the provincial government struggled. We had discussions with different people because we knew it would have an impact. As politicians we all got together to discuss these things.
However the reality is that the federal government cut dollars to the provinces and the provinces, in trying to maintain their health services and other services, felt that they had no obligation to exempt first nations from provincial sales tax. They are exempt from GST.
Consultation did not take place initially but I am happy to say that there was some consultation after as to how the whole thing would proceed. It was not something they did lightly but I know it was done because of a lack of resources and they wanted to ensure that services were maintained.