Mr. Speaker, this is an extraordinarily serious topic and I am glad the House has an opportunity to discuss it.
I must say that I am surprised by the intervention of the government House leader, first, because the government's argument today shows profound disrespect toward Canada's aboriginal peoples, and second, because it shows amazing disrespect for the office of the Speaker of this Parliament.
Mr. Speaker, you have already ruled on this issue many times, including barely one hour ago. The Speaker's ruling on that occasion earlier today and on many other occasions is quite clear. It reflects the view that is reported in Marleau and Montpetit at pages 711 and 712. Let me put those words on the record:
...since the rule change of 1994, private Members' bills involving the spending of public money have been allowed to be introduced and to proceed through the legislative process, on the assumption that a royal recommendation would be submitted by a Minister of the Crown before the bill was to be read a third time and passed. If a royal recommendation were not produced by the time the House was ready to decide on the motion for third reading of the bill, the Speaker would have to stop the proceedings and rule the bill out of order.
Assuming the argument that the government House leader is putting forward has some validity to it, which I do not accept but deny, it would seem to me, in the words of Marleau and Montpetit, that the normal process would be to allow the House to debate this matter in the ordinary course of events until it came to third reading. We would then see if by that time the government has brought forward the appropriate royal recommendations. If so, the matter can proceed to a conclusion but if not, that is the time when this item could be dealt with, but certainly not now and not in this way.
The government House leader's point, it seems to me, is not justified. The procedures of this House are not being infringed by Bill C-292 standing in the name of the right hon. member for LaSalle--Émard.
I want to make another point that relates to the rest of the argument advanced by the government House leader. Royal recommendations are required to accompany new proposals for new spending. The money required to implement the Kelowna accords is not new. Let me just take about two or three minutes to clarify these particular points.
As the federal minister of finance at the time of the Kelowna first ministers' meeting involving the then prime minister, provincial and territorial premiers and the leaders of five national aboriginal organizations, I can confirm that as of that meeting, specifically November 24, 2005, the fiscal framework of the Government of Canada included a total of $5.096 billion to address obligations arising from what became known as the Kelowna accord.
The Kelowna meeting was the culmination of more than 18 months of hard work led by the former prime minister, in collaboration with aboriginal organizations and all provincial and territorial governments, to put together a serious plan to bridge unacceptable socio-economic gaps between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. The resulting accords focused on issues related to health, education, housing and water, economic development and governance.
In the government's 2005 economic and fiscal update, which was issued on November 14, the importance of the then upcoming Kelowna meeting was specifically mentioned, together with an undertaking to provide the needed funding. I would point out, with respect to the fiscal update, that there was more than enough unused fiscal room in the framework at that time to accommodate the expected sum. When the Kelowna meeting actually took place about 10 days later, the money was booked in the amount of $5.096 billion.
It is interesting that the fiscal treatment of the Kelowna accords was quite similar to how we handled another important issue at that time which was the special federal funding of $755 million to help the grain and oilseed producers in the farm sector. In both cases, formal announcements were not ready to be made at the time of the November 14 fiscal update but both were signalled specifically in that update and flexibility was built into our framework to cover the anticipated expenses.
By November 24, both initiatives were ready to go, both announcements were made and the money for both was booked.
I am very pleased that the government has proceeded with our $755 million commitment to help farmers. That is the right thing to do. In that same spirit, it is also important for the government to follow through on the parallel commitment to aboriginal peoples and deliver the funding that was most certainly set aside for this compelling purpose on November 24 of last year.
It is interesting to note that at Kelowna the now Minister of Indian Affairs was personally present in the room and applauded the result that was arrived at by the discussions in Kelowna. It seems to me terribly unfortunate that the government continues to devote extraordinary time, effort and energy to denigrating the efforts of previous governments and previous parliaments.
Since all of that there has been an election, a Speech from the Throne, a surplus of $12 billion and a budget. It seems to me that it is time for the government to quit blaming the past and to start governing for the future for a change.