Bob Nault

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 25th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the answer to the question posed by the member is very simple. We in this place have had a number of court rulings on aboriginal rights defined for us in a very limited way. It is now the role of governments to go to the table and negotiate with first nations what those rights would mean in a very modern context, and that is what we propose to do.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 25th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I am working very closely with my provincial colleagues to get to the negotiating table with the Mi'kmaq people to come up with an Atlantic specific solution to a very complex issue. We are working very closely with them and we would like to, if we could, have this negotiation with the players and not with the opposition in the House.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 25th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know of any deadline today, so I do not know what the member is talking about.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 22nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I will try one again more time. It is very important for the member opposite to read the agreement.

If the member wants to listen he will know that in the agreement it is not the case that there are no land rights for individual Nisga'a people. They can in the agreement set up a land code which will allow through fee simple for the individual Nisga'a owners to have a deed to that property based on their own regulations as a government.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 22nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the intention of signing the Nisga'a agreement is to bring certainty, not only to our responsibility under the constitution to first nations rights but also economic certainty to the province of British Columbia, a province that needs certainty in the forestry area.

That is where we are at. That is where we were going. We are doing the responsible thing, and I hope the Reform Party will come to its senses and support the Nisga'a agreement like everybody else in the House.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to accomplish keeping the Reform alive but it is not doing a very good job of helping me.

Let me make one point that the hon. member is again suggesting. We have now gone as far as to brief all major media, so they will not get away with this in the House any more.

The fact remains that aboriginal women are represented in the legislation through provincial legislation and will have their rights protected. Now the hon. member should stand in his place to apologize for making statements that are not factually correct.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is below this place to try to answer a question that suggests that aboriginal people somehow are not accountable when they are elected by their own peers. That is the most disgusting comment I have heard from that member for almost a week.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, that is why the members un-united alternative across the way is just not getting it.

Let me answer the question for them. The fact remains that the assumption—

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have 51 first nations and I know I have been to all of them, contrary to some of these guys.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 21st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, accountability is a duly elected chief and council on reserve who are elected by their constituents.