Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's question and of course always love to talk about my riding so I am glad he mentioned it.
I hope, however, that the member does not fall into the trap that some of us who have been here for a while also fall into, that is, getting off topic. We all agree that there are problems. This legislation addresses a particular problem. Hopefully, at least, the most effective members of Parliament will use their time to deal with the question at hand without getting into other areas.
In this particular case, I will answer the question. In the future, I will have less tolerance for this because we are trying to solve a particular problem. We have a good solution that all parties agree with, I think, so hopefully we can deal with that, but I would be delighted to talk about the question at hand because he mentioned my riding.
In relation to first nations water, it is obviously a basic need and everyone in this House would like it to be dealt with. I am not sure if in the debate so far it has come out that several years ago we put a program in place to audit first nations water all across this country and put in management plans to move that forward.
We have obviously been working on this for a number of years. I think all members of the House would want us to move forward as quickly as possible. I have urged that in the past, so this is nothing new. We have been working on this right across the country. Hopefully we will work faster in some areas where need be so we do not again have the unfortunate situation that we have had.
In relation to my particular riding, which the member asked about, it is a good chance for me to once again let Canadians, members of Parliament and everyone know that we have a unique land claim in Yukon, which has been settled. What that of course gives is a land claim and self-government agreement. I think virtually every member in this House believes that to solve the many problems the member has talked about, the ultimate best solution is to transfer--once again, as it was for centuries--management back to those peoples, who at one time ran their own governments and communities with great success.
We have self-government agreements across the country and that is exactly what we have in the Yukon. My personal opinion is that since we have put them in place there have been dramatic improvements in all the areas the member talked about, including the socio-economic area, because first nations have large governments taking on both the authority and the responsibility for dealing with those problems very successfully in their communities.
All I would ask is that the member opposite and his party, in its present form, be more supportive of such agreements. I know that a previous incarnation voted against this deal. I will not hold that against him. More recently, that party voted against the Tlicho self-government agreement. I think that support would help move these situations forward.