Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased, on behalf of the New Democratic Party, to speak to Bill C-54, the first nations oil and gas and moneys management bill.
Let me say at the outset that it is my policy personally, and I believe I can speak for the NDP caucus, that when legislation dealing with aboriginal issues is asked for, developed by and driven by first nations, my party will not stand in the way, in any way shape or form, to that legislation coming to fruition. We will support Bill C-54 and we recognize and pay tribute to the patience and perseverance of the architects of the bill who, for the past 10 years, have done the necessary development of the bill and have it put into the form in which we find it today.
The bill goes to the core of what is wrong with this nation's treatment of aboriginal people and its relationship with aboriginal people. In a happy vein, it makes some progress toward what is wrong, but let me state clearly at the front that the bill is about the share and control of land and resources. Frankly, if aboriginal people and first nations were given a greater share and a greater control of the land and resources on their reserves and in their traditional territory, we would not see the abject poverty and the third world conditions that are so endemic in the aboriginal population.
As my colleague from Halifax said, we would not need the bill if we would only get our minds around the fact that the treaties that we signed in days gone by were all about a sharing of the resources and the wealth of this great nation. Somehow that aspect of the treaty process has been put aside and has been gathering dust. It has never been honoured and aboriginal people only make progress in terms of sharing of land and resources when they fight it through the Supreme Court of Canada.
In most of the recent rulings of the Supreme Court pertaining to first nations sharing in land and resources, first nations have won. The Supreme Court has found the Government of Canada to be wrong, that it was not fulfilling its contractual obligations under the treaties and not fulfilling its fiduciary obligations under the Indian Act. We have been deliberately and systematically denying first nations their rightful share in the land and resources. That is the basic context within which I will make my remarks today.
The bill is about oil and gas reserves. Imagine being an aboriginal person living in Alberta for the past 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, 7,000 years and, by some happy coincidence, oil is struck under our feet. The most valuable commodity in the world, by non-aboriginal culture and European western standards, is unearthed in abundance under our feet. We should be like Jed Clampett and The Beverly Hillbillies story because untold wealth should be our legacy, not abject poverty.
Instead, because of the structure of the Indian Act and because of the attitude of us colonizing the population, there has been no sharing of that bounty. In fact, it is only with the enactment of Bill C-54 that we will see for the first time an actual transfer of authority, control and management of the oil and gas on first nations land to first nations.
I will go through some of the status quo to compare the current situation to what is being contemplated by the bill in order to illustrate this point. Let me say for the record that the prime proponents of the bill, the three first nations that have come together to ask for this initiative, are the Siksika First Nation, led by Chief Strater Crowfoot in this context; the White Bear First Nation of Saskatchewan, which will be represented by Councillor Clarence Nokahoot at the committee when the bill gets there; and the Blood Tribe, which will be represented by Councillor Kirby Manyfingers.
I think it would be useful in the context of this debate to back up a little bit and recognize and acknowledge who we are dealing with. I come from the prairies so I know the name Crowfoot as a name of myth and legend on the Canadian prairies. Chief Strater Crowfoot is the direct descendant of Crowfoot, one of the greatest leaders and statesmen of Canadian history. Crowfoot was born as a Blood Indian, many would be interested to know, along the banks of the Belly River in 1830. As a child he was actually given the name Shot-Close.
We should point out that names among first nations in this part of the world were considered living and evolving things to be passed on to those who earned that category. After his father was killed, Shot-Close was adopted by the Blackfoot. Most people associate Crowfoot with the Blackfoot and they gave him the name, Bear Ghost. He earned the most prestigious name, Isapo-muxika or Crowfoot in the Blackfoot language, from an act of bravery during an attack and raid on the Crowfoot camp.
I think this bit of history is important so we can capture the gravity, weight and import of what we are doing today. This is not just an administrative detail. This is the manifestation of great patience, leadership and administrative skills by an acknowledged leader of the Blackfoot Nation. I think we would all benefit by knowing more about the Crowfoot name.
After an outbreak of smallpox that decimated the Blackfoot in 1869, Crowfoot became the chief. During his years as chief, Crowfoot became famous as an influential peacemaker throughout those tumultuous times where they were being faced by what today would be viewed as an alien invasion, invading forces of strange people, us. We were interrupting thousands of years of development of his people in that area. Crowfoot became known for keeping his young men from making raids and showing leniency in dealing with his enemies, a courtesy that was not afforded by us toward his people in fact.
He formed a close relationship with a missionary, Albert Lacombe, a man well known in our Canadian history books, who he actually rescued from a Cree attack. Early in the 1870s he made peace with the Cree and in fact adopted a young Cree, which is another name that all people in the House will recognize, Poundmaker. Chief Poundmaker was the adopted son of Crowfoot, just as Crowfoot was the adopted son of the Blackfoot.
Crowfoot had a keen intellect and even while the buffalo were still plentiful, Crowfoot saw a bleak future for his people. His famous quote is, “We all see that the day is coming when the buffalo will all be killed and we shall have nothing more to live on”. How interesting it is that 130 years later his direct descendant, Chief Strater Crowfoot, is dealing with taking care of the interests of his people and looking for an economic future, some livelihood because there has been an interruption in the 100 years preceding where first nations in that region have been without a means to control and dictate their own destiny.
Crowfoot remained a man of great dignity and compassion throughout a series of his own illness and personal sorrow and in watching their livelihood diminish. It was said that he captured the imagination of almost everyone who met him. After eight of his twelve children had died, he heard that his adopted son Poundmaker had been convicted of treason. This was after the raid on the abandoned Fort Battleford.
When Poundmaker occupied the abandoned fort at Battleford, he was in fact charged with treason, treated as an enemy and put in prison. Crowfoot wrote to his son, Poundmaker, saying, “I have such a feeling of lonesomeness, of seeing my children die every year, and if I hear that you are dead I will have no more reason for living”. The sadness was profound and there is a very well known song and poem on Crowfoot's lament.
He had been a warrior, a peacemaker, an orator, a diplomat and a leader and he brought great honour to the name of Crowfoot, as it still rings throughout the prairies today.
I go through that bit of interesting history because Chief Strater Crowfoot, who we deal with today, has come to the House of Commons, to Parliament, to ask that we consider the speedy passage of this bill on behalf of the people he represents. In the interests of fairness, righting historic wrongs and enabling people to proceed with economic development that will lead his people from poverty to bridge that gap to the mainstream population, this type of enabling legislation is absolutely necessary.
I should point out some of the history of the treatment of oil and gas royalties and first nations people up until the advent of this bill. Let me give one case study, a very brief analysis of how aboriginal people have been left out of the enormous benefit of the resources found in that part of the world until recently.
This is a source from a book called The Future Petroleum Provinces of Canada . It has done a case study of one reserve that struck oil. The Indian Act specifically bars aboriginal people from having any share in the resources, other than sand, gravel, clay, silt and mud. If gold, petroleum, rubies or anything of any value is discovered on their land, they have no right to it. If there is mud, clay, sand or dirt on their reserve, they are allowed to go forth and proceed with economic development in that capacity. There is a limit to how much mud one can sell.
In the case of oil, here is the breakdown for the benefit of this case study reserve. We will call it reserve X, but it is a real reserve, with a population 3,000. The potential reserve of the oil on the property is 19.3 million barrels. The natural gas on the reserve is 93 billion cubic feet. Reserve of oil per capita is 6,400 barrels. Not to go through all these details, let me get down to the bottom here. After all these formulas and calculations about the royalty value per person on reserve X, the one-time lump sum cash payment per person was $15,000. They are sitting on a wealth of oil and their families and children are living in abject poverty with no prospects, no hope of economic development because it is not allowed under the Indian Act. They are at the mercy of the minister for everything they do. He has absolute control over their destiny. They are sitting on this pool of black gold and their share is a one-time lump sum payment of $15,000.