Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question points to the history of the federal government's failure to acknowledge its responsibility for aboriginal people in Newfoundland. Since 1949 the aboriginal people in Newfoundland have been seeking recognition. The Mi'kmaq were denied recognition or status under the Indian Act and thus the right to access the programs and benefits that such status entails. This is the first opportunity for them to seek that recognition.
Despite the criteria and the people who have negotiated this agreement for a particular subset of, I guess, I could call it, the Mi'kmaq—those who live in certain communities and have an attachment to those communities—obviously everyone else who has a claim to aboriginal status based on their ancestry and rights in existence or inherent rights are seeking recognition through this process. That exposes the unfairness.