House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2015, with 29% of the vote.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, to say that the member is diverging from the topic we are debating is an understatement. I would ask him to refocus his comments on the actual bill and its contents as they were laid out by his own colleague in Motions Nos. 1, 2 and 3, which we heard the Speaker announce and ask us to speak to today.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the intervention of the member for Davenport. He is kind of a Mini-Me version of the member for Timmins—James Bay. He tried his best to figure out from Davenport what would be applicable to first nations communities in many vast regions of the country. He would know, or he should, that the government, just by way of example, invested more than $80 million into state-of-the-art Internet service for communities covering Northern Ontario, which is an area larger than most European countries. We understand there are structural challenges and with respect to the bill, there are alternatives for supplying the information.
My question is in respect to his word “adjudicate”. The fact is that this information is not directly accessible by community members from their community. That creates the issue of self-governance. It is a conversation that needs to take place between the citizens living in a first nations community and their chief and council. It gets the minister out of it, which deals with the member's issue of gathering of power in the minister's office.
How can he reconcile his statements with the reality that the bill reflects the desires and wishes of first nations constituents asking this of their chief and council?
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Table the budget that it was in.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, earlier, one of the member's colleagues mentioned the Kelowna accord. We know a couple of things about that document. First, it was an 11th hour document when the Liberals were effectively on their way out the door because Canadians had rejected their version of accountability and transparency.
I am seeing some furrowed eyebrows down there and I am sure that is more out of frustration than anything.
Second, the Kelowna accord was not actually in a budget so it remains to be seen as to whether there was a genuine attempt here to deliver on some of the things.
Third, our government has gone far beyond the Kelowna accord, not just in terms of resources but in terms of the kinds of legislative tools that would bring a modern first nations economy up to speed with many regions of this country.
This bill is important because accountability and transparency are central tenets of self-governance. It is a relationship between the chief and council and its citizens. It would get rid of the issue of having to go to the minister for this kind of public information.
Given the LIberals' poor track record on this, does the member not think that kind of accountability and transparency is what is important here, not the kind the Liberals delivered in days gone by?
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, how can the member say that the mayors in his riding, the premier of his province or anyone in any level of government must provide only their personal financial information, namely their salaries and work-related expenses?
Is the member saying that this does not apply to the other levels of government, especially when, in certain cases, first nations governments receive almost all of their funds from the federal government?
The only real question is this: can the government in question provide the financial documents that include salaries and expenses, and make them available to the public? I cannot imagine the member saying no.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, part of the problem I have with the narrative coming from across the floor is on this issue of the reporting burden. In one sense, we know that one of the central tenets of self-governance is that the conversation take place vis-à-vis accountability and transparency, and that it take place between the government and its constituents. The bill would help to facilitate that and furthermore, the reporting burdens would actually decrease if the communities put this out to their constituents for more flexible funding arrangements and a greater, stronger relationship.
Can the member talk about how the bill would actually lead to a reduction in reporting burdens for first nation communities?
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Manicouagan for his remarks. I visited his riding a few years ago when we made an announcement there.
I am wondering about something. He focused on a single witness. But there were many others, including ordinary people, the grassroots, as he said. People in the community said many times that they did not feel safe asking for financial documents in certain circumstances. I think it is important to allow public access for the residents of a given community.
Did he understand what the ordinary people in these communities had to say about being reluctant to ask for these financial documents during a forum with their community? I think that is a legitimate question.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of points. On the issue of consultation, I wonder if Jean Chrétien consulted with first nations constituents when he drafted his white paper. I wonder about the eight or nine years I lived in isolated, remote first nations across Canada, where there were water and sewer treatment plants in need of repair if not replacement and schools that had burned down in communities and were never replaced or had never existed in the first place. I wonder if there was any consultation at that point.
We know what the Liberal Party's position is on accountability: $40 million here, a $55 billion slush fund for employment. It is no wonder they want all of these clauses deleted. I am not surprised.
We know about moving the bill forward in co-operation with the Whitecap Dakota First Nation, for example, which made substantive inputs because it has complex business operations and wanted these tightened up and addressed. We appreciated and received those amendments, and supported them at committee.
I think the bill has the essential components and I am wondering what the member has to say about things like accountability and the active participation of first nation community members in the decision-making of their chiefs and councils.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
I think that was a lob, Mr. Speaker. Imagine this hypothetical question. If only the Liberal government had carried through on its governance provisions under one of the previous ministers in its caucus, who happened to be the member of Parliament for Kenora, when he brought those forward, and their leader and several caucus members did not have the intestinal fortitude to bring that governance act forward. That is why we are debating certain things like this.
Second, the member is actually spot on. If he had participated or even read some of the transcripts at committee for this instead of getting up and asking this kind of fluffy question, he would know that it is coming from first nation community members.
That is exactly why the bill is here, because it meets the requests of numerous first nations peoples and organizations who simply wanted the bands to provide information to them in a safe, public forum so that they could understand what kinds of decisions their communities are making, and perhaps—imagine this—play a more vital role in that decision-making process.
First Nations Financial Transparency Act November 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I think a lot of that. I think a lot of the member, actually, for asking that question.
As it turns out, this is one of those steps, one, parmi plusieurs d'autres, to address that kind of level playing field transparency that gives the private sector the kind of confidence it can have when it wants to work and establish a joint venture, establish a place in a small business centre. In a number of isolated first nations communities, that is occurring right in the great Kenora riding and right in the Timmins—James Bay riding as well.
It is true; the resource sector offers a dynamic legacy opportunity for first nations communities to participate in a fulsome, integrated way, and these steps, like the bill, provide a substantive opportunity to furnish information that would be available to its members to help actively participate in their government's decision making, whether it is infrastructure in their community or new relationships with the private sector.
Therefore, yes, we are looking forward to this and we see the bill as one critical step toward that goal.