David Iftody

[Division No. 317, February 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond to the hon. member for Wild Rose on behalf of the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development concerning the forensic audits.

For too long the solution has been to have the federal government come to the rescue and fix all the problems that emerge in and around the reserve communities. We tried this approach and we know that having evaluated it in the past 50 years it has not worked. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples sent us a message to change. Today our approach is to work in partnership with first nations to build a plan that will create real change on behalf of aboriginal people.

First nations governments are expected to conduct their affairs in accordance with the principles common to all governments in Canada, namely, transparency, disclosure and redress. These principles are intended to ensure accountability of first nation leaders to their communities. To help build effective administration for this responsibility, all first nations are required to complete an evaluation of their current accountability and management practices. Where weaknesses are identified, first nations develop a plan to strengthen them. First nations are taking the initiative to build the necessary support for this activity.

First nations governments and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development work together. When problems do occur, and they do occur, a remedial management plan is put into place to help restore the first nation's financial health. This plan could include placing the first nation under a co-management plan or even third party management.

Where there is evidence of wrongdoing, it should be taken to the police as the member has alluded to. In this case of course they found there was no wrongdoing. In a first nations community, as in other communities, the police have the authority and responsibility to investigate allegations of wrongdoing.

Accountability is fundamental to self-government. We continue to partner with first nations private sector organizations and governments and we will continue to work constructively with all first nations to ensure accountability.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 12th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member on this side of the House for that question. I only regret it did not come from the Reform Party, the official opposition, to ask that kind of a question about the plight of aboriginal people in Canada.

I can tell the hon. member, as I said earlier in my first response, we are working closely with the communities to ensure that they are looked after. It goes beyond the question of providing housing for aboriginal people. We need to settle land claims with the aboriginal people of Canada to give them an opportunity to participate fully in Canada and enter the 21st century.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 12th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we are very distressed about the videotape which was displayed last night on CTV. We are aware of the situation. I have had a briefing this morning with the member of parliament representing those particular communities.

I would also like to advise the House that the local police department is closely surveying those who are living in the bush in these temporary housing placements to ensure there is no loss of life.

I would encourage the hon. member to perhaps try to persuade the provincial government that most recently closed 70 beds in that community which has forced many of these unfortunate people out of the Red Lake and Pine Lake communities into the bush. We are going to continue to—

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 12th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has replied recently to a former question with respect to housing increases in Canada, some $50 million, which would include for example off-reserve aboriginal people.

In our department this year we are spending $160 million, an additional $20 million, $43 million of which is going to Manitoba, the member's own province. We are working very closely with a number of bands, namely the Peguis Indian reserve and Dakota Tipi for innovative housing projects which would involve also the infusion of private capital.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 12th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I will not comment on whether the minister did or did not have any knowledge about the hiring of this particular individual.

However I can tell the member as he knows, in his own province of Alberta we have been working extensively over the past number of months with a number of bands to improve the financial management. They have agreed in many instances and are working currently with the Assembly of First Nations for example on accountability practices not only of these selected communities but generally across Canada.

We are working closely with the first nations to ensure proper management and expenditure of those dollars to go to those people in the communities.

[Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to respond to the hon. member for Churchill on behalf of the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development concerning the social problem at the Shamattawa First Nation.

The Government of Canada is concerned about the living conditions facing the residents of Shamattawa. We are working in partnership with the first nation to take action in addressing the social conditions.

Numerous meetings have occurred among regional officials and the chief and council over the past few months. On November 20 officials from Health Canada and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development met with Chief Massan of the Shamattawa First Nation and Chief Francis Flett of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. They discussed the first nation's desire to build a multipurpose complex which would contain an arena. On December 24, 1998 a letter committing $400,000 toward the cost of this multipurpose complex was provided to the first nation. These funds include $200,000 in advance to the first nation's base capital allocation and another $200,000 provided through social and educational reform components of the gathering strength initiative.

In addition, $150,000 was made available to enhance education facilities. The first nation anticipates the construction of two portable classrooms to begin in the spring.

Construction of a water treatment plant is also under way at a cost of $4,736,000. A further $33,000 has been identified to assist the first nation in the development of a human resource strategy that will target education and employment opportunities for youth.

Finally, I understand that the community is working on a proposal to access dollars from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, to which the member referred, to address its needs for a healing centre on the reserve.

[Job Creation, February 2nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, 18 full time jobs were created in my riding recently with the announcement of a loan from the Government of Canada to two local companies operated by former employees of the AECL plant in Pinawa.

Acsion Industries is expected to create 14 full time jobs over the next three years. The company has recently opened up international markets for its electron beam technology which is used in aerospace industry, parts repair, rayon fibre production and converting hog waste into fertilizer.

Granite Internet Services Inc. is providing high level Internet services to eastern Manitoba and is creating four full time jobs over three years. The company provides dial-up Internet access, business services and design services for local area networks and websites.

I am particularly pleased to support these two young companies because they are both owned and managed by former AECL employees. These are the sorts of initiatives we have been aiming for because they are creating jobs for an expanding economic base in western Canada.

[First Nations Land Management Act, February 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, that is not true. That is false. That was a breach of a promise. That is not true and the member knows it is not true.

Let us talk about one of their most recent issues in terms of the Musqueam band case. Why are they up in arms? It is because the Federal Court of Canada most recently ruled that the Musqueam people have a legal right and title to fair rent based on market values that we all agree to. It was the Federal Court of Canada that made this rule, not the Musqueam band. It has set out the guidelines.

In terms of consultation, in 1972 the Musqueam band asked the tenants association to renegotiate the contract. They said no. In 1980, as the member points out, they asked to renegotiate the contract. They said no. In 1993 they asked to renegotiate the contract. They said “No, we are going to court”, and have not paid the rent from 1993 up until now, ostensibly using those moneys for the court fees.

The Federal Court of Canada has said that an acre of land in the best property in Canada is worth close to half a million dollars a year, but they are paying $330 a month in rent.

The Indian band in this case is willing to negotiate, to sit down with the people affected for a fair deal. That is essentially what the bill does. It provides opportunity, fair opportunity as equal Canadians.

The Reform Party wants to talk about equal Canadians. Here we have two parties wanting to sit down and negotiate. They want to break the deal. They want to create mischief and trouble and break the deal. That is not right. That is not proper. That is not representing the people of British of Columbia, the people of Alberta. I am asking the member, as he did in the standing committee, to do the right thing and support the bill again.

The people representing those 14 first nations have a right after 10 years of consultation to good and decent representation in the House. It is incumbent upon members of parliament debating the issue—and we have heard today that they have an obligation—to pass the bill and do the right thing for those people. What do they want to do with their bill and their lands? They want to commercialise it so that they can form commercial contract relationships with non-aboriginal people.

They do not want it. The member from the Sunshine Coast actually stood and said “We want them to consult with us before they build something on their land”. I cannot remember a municipality having to do that. They want to impose unfair rules on the first nations, put chains on the first nations and drag them back to the dark ages, but we will not let it happen. We will stand here and represent these issues.

Also speaking of consultation, the B.C. Association of Municipalities has met with the Musqueam band on eight occasions and has recently submitted a letter concluding that the discussion papers attached here are a very good starting point for the negotiation and ultimately the finalization of a reciprocal consultation agreement. They are working out these processes with the affected band and it is working well.

Most recently the chief of the Squamish nation has met with the mayor of North Vancouver, met with the mayor of West Vancouver and the mayor of the North Vancouver District. They have set up a consultation process. They did not mention that today. They do not want that consultation process because they do not want the outcomes.

I suggest to them the reason they flip flop here so unashamedly is that they are scaremongering. They are trying to scare the good people of British Columbia. They are trying to set up a scheme to pose to Nisga'a, but we will not buy it. The Canadian people will not buy it and we will oppose it.

[First Nations Land Management Act, February 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I stand with great pleasure to close the debate this evening. There are only a few moments left but I want to make a number of points that I think are particularly important to the debate.

In the intervention made at the outset by the member for Skeena, the critic for the Reform Party, he said he cannot support this bill because he wants to consult.

I want the member sitting next to him from Calgary and the rest of the members of his caucus to know that it was before Christmas that both he and the member from Prince George, the deputy critic having sat at the standing committee, having listened to the witnesses, having gone through that legislation clause by clause in the committee, representing the Reform Party, voted yea to the legislation.

They voted for the legislation with one amendment providing constitutional protections and those were agreed to. I want the Canadian public to know and I want the people of British Columbia who are watching this debate to know that both their members agreed to it. They shook hands with the chiefs and council members who were there that evening.

They had an agreement. We had an agreement of trust and guess what we had here today? We had the member leading off the debate saying that he wants to consult when he was trying to convince the rest of his members to support the legislation.

He has done an absolute turnaround on this legislation to stand in the House now and say he wants to consult. For the comments made by the member from Calgary, there are 9 years of consultation involving 14 bands that have reworked this again and again. They brought the legislation forth in this House once before only to have it defeated and thrown out. They went back to their communities to consult again, to rework it one more time and they come back in the House again. This far from the goal line, after close to 10 years of consultation, and they want to kill it. They want more consultation.

[First Nations Land Management Act, February 1st, 1999]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order just to interrupt the hon. member for a moment. He used language which I believe all of us would agree is unparliamentary. He said that the member had deliberately misled the House. I would ask him to withdraw those two words.