Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the member to view the testimony of the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs when he was at committee. He and his officials had to admit that there was no consultation on the bill. Consultation was conducted on the previous bill. Chief Darcy Bear supported the previous bill. This legislation reaches far beyond the scope of the previous private member's bill and has created all of the problems that Chief Darcy Bear put in the letter to that member and the minister.
The minister already has the power to request a first nation to release data to a member of a community that has complained. It is appalling that the minister and his officials have literally no data on those complaints. They said they had around 200 complaints a year but they had no data as to whether all of those complaints came from the same person or whether they were all with respect to the same band. There was absolutely no data to support this kind of legislation coming forward. They had no excuses as to why no consultation took place with respect to the huge difference between the original private member's bill and this government bill.
Government amendments had to fix that difference because of the very clear speaking of Chief Darcy Bear and the first nations who were appalled at the bait and switch of support for the principles of a private member's bill. The government bill exceeds the intent of the original private member's bill and first nations find this totally insulting.