Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay for his passion and leadership on this issue.
This is not a criticism of the member's speech; it is a comment. I would like the member to reply with a brief comment as well.
What is missing in this discussion so far is the issue of self-government. We have to change the nature of the relationship.
Here we are debating the conditions of a sewage treatment plant or the lack of running water in a community thousands of miles away because it does not have the resources to deal with these problems. Until we create a Canada wherein we actually transfer the resources to allow people to make these decisions to get on with it themselves, we will continue this pattern of frustration and dependence, which is such a negative aspect of this whole issue we are discussing today.
We all need to figure out a way to move forward on the self-government agenda. We nearly got there at one time in our constitutional history. However, we did not get there and, as a result, we see a huge backup in land claims, discussions and negotiations. There is great difficulty getting there.
I would ask the hon. member to comment on that.