Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from the parliamentary secretary with regard to the fact that all parties in the House have been supportive of first nations. We have worked in this Parliament, collaboratively. We have worked together to advance the interests of first nations. This bill is an example of that, a bill supported by all parties in the House, much like previous bills have been.
We all know our first nations are in very dire straits in many cases. I represent northern Saskatchewan. My constituency has over 100 reserves, probably more than any other constituency in Canada. Many of those first nations are in what can only be described as dire need. They are in incredible poverty. Basic infrastructure such as housing is lacking and conditions are abysmal.
The fact that we are moving forward on some bills such as this is a positive thing as we move toward self-government. For that reason, I am very supportive of the bill. It is a sectoral self-government initiative but it is a positive move.
I particularly appreciate the voluntary nature of the bill. We had another bill before this House, the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, which was a voluntary bill as well. This is a direction in which we might want to continue to move in the future. My party has in our policy book those types of initiatives, voluntary-type bills, that we would introduce in government as well.
In this bill three first nations have signed on thus far. We will probably be able to get into this in more depth in committee. We will be meeting later this afternoon and the minister will be there. We can perhaps ask him additional questions on this. However, does the parliamentary secretary foresee there being more first nations coming on board in the near future or further down the road and what is her view on how we go forward on this?