Mr. Speaker, I think it will be difficult, after what I have heard today, to deal in any direct way with some of the ramblings of the opposition.
My friend from Elk Island said they are not able to speak to it. We have been speaking to it since 10.15 this morning and I have not heard a great deal that is on the bill, the purpose of the bill, or why the bill has been 11 years in the making. In fact, it has probably been 30 or 40 years in the making.
Some of the enlightened first nations of the country have been trying to become responsible, have been trying to get out from under the paternalistic Indian Act for many years. Three times in fairly recent history the government has offered to scrap the Indian Act and to bring native people into full partnership in Canada. It has never been accepted, partly because it was too big a chunk to swallow and partly because first nations were at various levels of expertise or capacity for economic development of their reserves and their peoples. They suffered from that paternalism. They all recognized it, and we recognize it.
We are trying to take a step at the behest of 16 first nations and more that sought a review of federal policy on delegated land authority as part of a broader exploration of alternatives to the Indian Act. They began work on the legislation in 1991. In the last parliament it was Bill C-75 which unfortunately died on the order paper.
As vice-chair of the aboriginal affairs and northern development committee I have been dealing with this problem on behalf of the government, my fellow members in the House and the aboriginal people of the country for about five years. It is not very long, as the native people count their seven generations, but I have been struck by the capacity of these people to look after themselves, to take a hand in their own development. I have seen evidence where they have been given some encouragement in terms of what they can do.
I have read a good deal of the royal commission report on aboriginal peoples which talked about four things that were important if we were to bring first nations as citizens of Canada into Canada where they belong. They were respect for their values, for their spirituality, for their history, for their sense of land and for their sense of community; recognition that they are in fact citizens of the country; responsibility, which we had been summarily taking away since the passing of the Indian Act; and sharing, to share in the future of the land because we realize this is the second largest country in the world in area, much of it north of the 60th parallel.
In less than a month, on April 1, we will be celebrating the founding of Nunavut, a land, a territory, the northeastern arctic territory of the country which is one-fifth of Canada's land mass. It has fewer residents than the town of Woodstock, the county seat of Oxford, but it will have control and responsibility for its people, its land and its laws.
The first language of the territory will be Inuktitut. Cree will be a language as will English. They will start off on this great adventure and I wish them well. It would be too bad to go on carping about what other first nations want to do with their land in concert with the provincial governments which they must respect in terms of environmental matters, the Constitution and the charter of rights and freedoms that they fully accept.
I hear opposition members railing that they have not had enough time to speak to it. If they had stuck to what was in the bill we might agree with them but they have not. They have talked about it being slightly flawed. I would like to know what legislation introduced in parliament since 1867 has been perfect.
I have heard from the opposition that it has to be right, that we have to do it right. Nonsense. We have to do it and do it the best way we know how with the best brains and co-operation we have. We have to give aboriginal people the right to go on and make some mistakes as we have done. We seem to think it will be perfection overnight. It will not be, but we will move along the road in the way those responsible for the aboriginal people want us to go.
As a new member in the House I sat beyond where the member from Perth is sitting and my colleague, Elijah Harper, addressed the House. He said to all of us including the opposition: “You don't get it, do you? You just don't get it. We were the first people here. It was our land”.
Contrary to what a member of the opposition mentioned two weeks ago, they did not have a feudal system of government. The feudal system of government was something created by the Anglo-Saxon race in England.
The Indians had a communal, co-operative system of government. They traded the length and breadth of this continent and the South American continent. They have been here for 10,000 years. They existed in the face of the harshest conditions that the world knows. They were never defeated in battle in this country. They welcomed the white skinned people. They taught them how to survive in the wilderness, how to survive the winter, and they expect to treated with some respect. That is what the report of the aboriginal people's commission said, and Gathering Strength which the minister published last year says how we will do it.
We need to pass the bill today. Members of the opposition worked with me in committee. They approved the bill in committee. They listened to the witnesses, to the people. They struggled with it. We asked for an amendment which we got. They said that was fine and they would support it.
A lot of good work is done in our committees. We match wits and we deal with a problem before us. Politics normally stay out of the way if there are a good committee chair and good committee members like we have on our committee. We came to an agreement.
Then I came in this morning and found that my colleague from Prince Albert was worried about giving band leadership more power. He agreed to the amendment. He agreed to the bill, but the big boss from Kootenay—Columbia came in and said “No, you can't do that. You can't go along with your colleagues and bring in a good bill because we are going to make some trouble”.
If I had heard some enlightened discussion on what was wrong with the bill, I might not be so passionate about it. I have spent a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of work on the bill. I want it passed. I want the chiefs to be proud of it. I want the 14 nations to get on with running their own affairs. I want us to get on with Gathering Strength. As one of my colleagues said earlier, the four principles of that document are increased governance, partners, new fiscal arrangements and strong community.
What could be more important to the aboriginal people of the country? I rest my case.