For the record, whenever we talk about taxes and as a Dene I have certain rights with Canada under my treaty. One of the areas we have is the area of not paying taxes. As for the people who do not know this, as a treaty Indian whenever I travel in the provinces and even visiting the
reserve in Hay River, I do not pay taxes because I am a treaty Indian and I have a treaty card. That gives me the right not to pay taxes, GST, or if I work on a reserve I do not pay income tax. So, these are the rights as a treaty Indian I am entitled to. I was asked by Members in my constituency who are treaty Indians, if this new tax we are trying to impose goes against those privileges. That is one of the areas where the chiefs have been saying it has not been cleared up between the government and the treaty Indians in the Northwest Territories. There are members in my band who have filed claim and got reimbursed by the federal government for being chiefs in the communities under designated band land. So, that whole area has not been cleared up with this government yet. Before clearing it up and having a good view of it, what we are going here is imposing upon the rights of treaty Indians. There are treaty Indians in this Assembly and on the Cabinet, and it is going to be difficult for you to vote in favour of something like this because you are imposing upon the treaty rights of your fellow treaty people in the north and that is one area that has not been cleared up.
In the land claims negotiation it was a very contentious issue. There are some regions that have presently negotiated and they are going to be paying taxes in the future in certain areas. There are other ones like in Treaty 8 in the south and Treaty 11 in my area, we have not negotiated that particular part. So, in that particular area I have been asked to raise this in the House that there is a real deep concern from people about peoples.
I understand that Treaty 8 Indians wrote a letter to the Standing Committee on Finance raising that issue on the original go-round for consultation. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me in the House if any work has been done to deal with this problem we have as treaty Indians. Thank you.