Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out the inconsistency in speech by the member opposite. On the one hand he is suggesting that the indigenous people of our northwest should be in control of their destiny. That absolutely should be the case. However, the legislation passed by the Harper administration ran absolutely roughshod over their constitutionally entrenched rights. Their land and water boards were amalgamated and were effectively dealt with so disrespectfully that the courts up north upheld an injunction.
How can the member possibly suggest that our government, in issuing a moratorium on Arctic offshore drilling in the northwest—which I happen to be very proud of—is somehow controlling the future of that resource, when the Conservatives, under the Harper administration, stripped the land and water boards of so much of their authority?