Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of points. On the issue of consultation, I wonder if Jean Chrétien consulted with first nations constituents when he drafted his white paper. I wonder about the eight or nine years I lived in isolated, remote first nations across Canada, where there were water and sewer treatment plants in need of repair if not replacement and schools that had burned down in communities and were never replaced or had never existed in the first place. I wonder if there was any consultation at that point.
We know what the Liberal Party's position is on accountability: $40 million here, a $55 billion slush fund for employment. It is no wonder they want all of these clauses deleted. I am not surprised.
We know about moving the bill forward in co-operation with the Whitecap Dakota First Nation, for example, which made substantive inputs because it has complex business operations and wanted these tightened up and addressed. We appreciated and received those amendments, and supported them at committee.
I think the bill has the essential components and I am wondering what the member has to say about things like accountability and the active participation of first nation community members in the decision-making of their chiefs and councils.