Mr. Speaker, if the interest is taking a run at the Indian Act and taking a good run at INAC, he has only to walk over and talk to us. I do not think there is anything holding up first nations communities than the deplorable bureaucracy, which has been created year in and year out by both parties.
I have watched time and time again as initiatives get stalled. Bureaucrats run the gamut of meetings, consultations and round tables with 80¢ on the dollar not hitting the communities for which they are intended. If the government said how it would circumvent the bureaucracy and how it would achieve results for first nations people on the ground, we would welcome the conversation, but we have not heard that.
New Democrats are interested in improving the quality of life of first nations people. It is the reason some of us went into politics in the first place. I watched former Reform Party members represent my riding. I hesitate to utter some of the phrases I heard them publicly use with respect to our first nations people. One of the burning reasons I first put my name forward to run for politics was because of the unbelievable attitude held by the former party. I will not attribute it to this one. Let us say it is a brand new day and the Reform Alliance and all those things have not infiltrated into the Tom Flanagan thinking of that party. However, let us for a moment remember that some of the attitudes at base level, with respect to first nations and their place in this country, are most discouraging in the history of the party and they must relinquish those attitudes if we are to get anywhere.
I would challenge the member on one key point. Today we are challenging and battling fish farms that his government seems to keep wanting to ram down our throats in the northwest of British Columbia. They are absolutely not wanted. I implore the member to talk to the Minister of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and get his head screwed on straight. Just today the first nations people of Skeena River, the major tributary in northern British Columbia, announced:
We the first nations of the Skeena River and its approaches proclaim the waters of our traditional territories a fish-farm-free, wild-salmon-only zone.
If the parliamentary secretary has the true intention of entering into sincere dialogue with the first nations people of my region, this proclamation will mean something. If he has true intention, tomorrow morning he will make absolutely sure that he marches over to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and at least let the minister know that first nations people in the northwest of British Columbia have spoken loud and clear. There simply will not be any more Department of Fisheries and Oceans initiatives to ram these things down our throat, as an example.
This would be an encouraging place for the parliamentary secretary to show a new dialogue, to show a new conversation. It would go a long way. I would stand with pride with him on any stage that he would like to confirm this proclamation, to confirm that the federal Government of Canada will respect such a serious wording and such a serious effort by our first nations people.