Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the rubber stamping of this massive, open-ended and precedent setting agreement with the people of the Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories called the Sahtu Dene and Metis comprehensive land claim agreement.
First let me state that I am strongly in favour of prompt settlement of native land claims, as well as encouragement toward self-government on a tribe by tribe basis.
Why then would I oppose Bill C-16? It is for the following reasons. First, because the agreement is a blank cheque, a giveaway, of non-renewable natural resources plus resource royalties which belong to all the people of Canada.
Second, instead of simply protecting aboriginal rights and providing a municipal type ownership of major settlement areas, this is a massive transfer of land in fee simple ownership to a very tiny percentage of our national population.
Third, it is a complex, open-ended agreement with a number of provisions no sensible person should sign regarding his own personal affairs, let alone the affairs of the nation.
Regarding resources, the sparsely settled basin of the Mackenzie River today largely remains a unexplored and underdeveloped treasure trove. Although an oil glutted Canada turned down the Mackenzie Valley pipeline in 1977 and passed a 10-year moratorium, future developments and future needs of a resource starved nation may yet see us looking toward this region as a major transportation corridor, with the addition to tugs, freight barges and native fishing boats plying a river whose volume of fresh water is surpassed in Canada only by the St. Lawrence.
The Mackenzie basin's largely unknown mineral resources nevertheless have inspired the mining rushes of Yellowknife, the Great Bear Lake and the Canol project for oil and gas.
Government policies today are seriously injuring a once mighty mining industry, but a wiser future government might once again see thousands of jobs in resource development in the Mackenzie basin whose already known riches include Yellowknife's gold and possibly diamonds, Uranium City and Echo Bay's uranium, the tungsten of Flat River and Faro's lead and zinc, in addition to the petroleum of Norman Wells and the Athabasca tar sands.
As a miner and prospector, I challenge the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the Minister of Natural Resources to tell the people of Canada how many millions of dollars in non-renewable resource wealth this agreement gives away forever by ceding mineral rights to 1,800 square kilometres of a mineral rich Mackenzie basin to the 982 adults and 773 children of the Sahtu Dene and Metis.
In addition to 15 annual cash payments of between $3.8 million and $9.6 million in 1990 dollars; in addition to a percentage of oil and gas royalties received by the government within the settlement area and including the Norman Wells oil field operated by Esso; these two ministers are prepared to hand the 982 adults and 733 children a blank cheque for mineral resources.
I would be intrigued to learn when in aboriginal history oil and gas and other mineral exploration development became an aboriginal right.
My second objection to Bill C-16 is that the agreement takes away from common ownership by all the people of Canada, an area larger than the combined land mass of Vancouver Island plus the Fraser Valley plus the Okanagan Valley where I live and hand this entire area over in fee simple ownership once again to 982 adults and 733 children.
As I stated, I am strongly in favour of settling native land claims promptly and encouraging our aboriginal people to move toward self-government on a tribe by tribe basis. I would have no objection to an agreement recognizing special rights of the Sahtu Dene and Metis to such renewable resources as hunting and fishing as carried on in native communities prior to colonial contact.
I might even see myself agreeing as part of self-government for these people a municipal type ownership being vested in the appropriate bands regarding their major settlement areas of Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake, Deline, Fort Norman and Norman Wells.
However according to a brief prepared by Melvin Smith, Q.C.: "No court in Canada of which I am aware, has decided that an aboriginal interest in land goes so far as to entitle aboriginal people to fee simple or full ownership".
My colleagues and I in the Reform Party on behalf of all the people of Canada are opposed to settling native land claims by handing over the fee simple ownership of massive chunks of land. We believe it would be far more appropriate for this House, as guardians of the rights of all Canadians, including generations yet unborn, to give native people special rights to hunting and fishing and to guarantee native people special representation on all governmental bodies having jurisdiction over water use and land use in land claim areas. It is more than excessive. We believe it is foolhardy and contravenes the right to equality of treatment for all citizens of this enormous country to hand over so much land in fee simple ownership.
Moving on to my third point, I see this agreement as having many serious flaws. For example there is a map accompanying this agreement which gives the impression that a certain specific piece of land has been decided upon. This is simply not true.
Appendix C to the agreement goes into some detail to describe the process for land selection which allows the Sahtu Tribal Council and the government to pursue the process of land identification and selection. In other words, this bill is asking Parliament to endorse giving away a huge tract of land which has not yet been specifically defined.
Pages 119 and 120 of the agreement are similarly open-ended. Section 26.4 merely appoints a working group to consider and make recommendations regarding a list of heritage places and sites. Also page 120 is blank, except for this note: "Sahtu Dene and Metis sacred sites. To be completed by parties".
Can signing this open-ended agreement be considered proper guardianship? Can signing this agreement be considered careful stewardship of a land which belongs today to our grandchildren? I say no.
Another aspect of this agreement which I find troubling is the multiplication of quasi-governmental boards. For example it will create renewable resource councils for each community. It will also create boards for renewable resources, for land use planning, for surface rights, for reviewing environmental im-
pact as well as land and water boards. Of course, there is an arbitration board.
I an told this government plans to introduce later in 1994 the Mackenzie River resource management act. This will spawn even more boards and panels to co-ordinate all those other boards and councils and panels and to regulate land and water uses that cross the settlement areas.
In view of the fact there are only 982 adults in the Sahtu Dene and Metis, one might be forgiven for wondering who will be left to carry on the traditional native pursuits of hunting, fishing and trapping when they are going to have so many councils and boards and panels to sit on?