moved that the bill be concurred in.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 1993, with 53% of the vote.
Yukon First Nations Self-Government Act June 21st, 1994
moved that the bill be concurred in.
Indian Affairs June 21st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, I do not understand where my friend is coming from. The census is taken by Census Canada in what is called census week in June. This is part of the problem with the Indian register. It is an ongoing register.
We do make comparisons and I want to assure the hon. member that we will be working with Census Canada. The comparison between Census Canada and the register was done. I have it here for 1986 if the member wants to see it.
The most recent one will be completed in August. I will be prepared to share the results with my friend. It is a public document.
Indian Affairs June 21st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, this is a problem that this government inherited from a former government which that leader was in.
We went into the province of Quebec and after asking the province of Quebec for contribution, we received none. That is $7 million of federal money in the province of Quebec to solve a problem that we did not even create.
Indian Affairs June 21st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, this question was of concern to the hon. member yesterday. He did not get a chance to ask it, but we discussed the problem.
I met with the delegation from 344 outside the House of Commons with members from the Bloc. They are satisfied that the obligation went through committee, through cabinet and our negotiator is mandated to commence negotiations on the basis of willing seller, willing buyer.
Questions On The Order Paper June 20th, 1994
a
) No first Nations have their funds fully managed by the department. b ) A current list of the 156 AFA recipients is shown below. Each year an updated list is published in Part III of the main estimates. It appears on pages 2-112 to 2-115 of the 1994-1995 estimates.
Indian Affairs June 20th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with the member. He probably knows me well enough now that when I put out money I want to see a product and I am looking for stricter fiscal regimes.
As part of self-government negotiations we are looking at those things. There may be more freedom as far as jurisdiction is concerned but there has to be more strict fiscal regimes, improved fiscal responsibility and a better database synchronizing the collection of the data so that it comes in at one time. This will ensure there are stricter regimes, not only for aboriginal people but for the employees at DIAND who are doing the analysis. I agree with him. It is there. It is being studied. There will be work plans out that my friend can examine because the First Nations will be examining them over the next two or three years.
Indian Affairs June 20th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, I read the article in La Presse . It is a very respected paper, but a very speculative article. It was based on a 1991 Statistics Canada examination. Even in that article it will be noted that Statistics Canada was unable to get reports from 78 First Nations.
In 1993 a corporate management group was put together with the bottom line of better fiscal regimes, a better basis for this type of interplay between ministries. There have been difficulties.
As my friend knows, in the last eight or nine years there has been a tremendous population explosion. The birth rate on reserves is twice that of the non-aboriginal birth rate. With respect to the C-31 returnees, when we passed the legislation the speculation was that perhaps there would be a 10 per cent increase on reserve. In fact, it is almost 40 per cent.
Not all these things are done strictly on numbers. It is more an art form than a science. When we build a road, put in a health service or look at a school, we are looking to the future. If a band has 250 when it should have 300, or 350 when it should have 300, we are still going to go with the project. We look at the project more than the numbers.
I want to assure the hon. member this government is not in the business of giving money to non-existent, non-aboriginal people.
Indian Affairs June 17th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, when I inherited the Yukon legislation in the form it was in I took the time to go to Yukon and spend three days negotiating with the Yukon people. When I say Yukon people, I mean the Chamber of Commerce, the mayors, the First Nations and the legislature.
When the CYI came to Ottawa for a week and a half, it tried to set up a meeting with these hon. members. They would not even meet with it. That is our dialogue with the people. That is this party's dialogue with the people.
Indian Affairs June 17th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, again it is a matter of different approaches and different philosophies. We are working with the aboriginal people.
I might remind the hon. member that our techniques vary in this way. The first question you asked in this House had 58 words in it and eight were derogatory. Eight were derogatory about the very people you purport to be defending today.
Indian Affairs June 17th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, it is a very broad question with no focus but I am prepared to answer it in this way.
I am as concerned as the hon. member about costs and accountability. I am prepared to work with the Reform Party to that end.
If holding our committee until 6 a.m. this morning for no useful purpose is any indication of the way the hon. member wants to go, I am not with him.