Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the last comment that the Minister made, we do need to have shelters because of the higher rate of violence. You didn't have to tell me that. I knew that. The only thing is, why? The "why" is what I would like to have answered. Why is it happening? Is it because of unemployment, low self-esteem or a combination of other factors? What is causing the high rate of violence? We seem to be doing everything to address the situation by providing all of these facilities in order to address the immediate concern, but we are not sitting back and saying, why is it happening? Why do we need to spend so many capital dollars to address a situation which should have been addressed a long time ago, perhaps? I don't understand.
I don't know what the reasons are or the answers on how to address it, but I think there is certainly something most definitely wrong out there. I think much of it has to do with lack of employment. Low self-esteem is something I have always had a concern about. One of the reasons for that is that we have taken much away from the communities. We have taken much away with regard to responsibility for their own direction and destination. Perhaps we or the department know that is one of the major factors of why those trends are happening the way they are. I am not hearing it. We seem to be hiding things so we don't address it. We just look at piecemeal solutions, shelters, alcohol and drug treatment centres, training in suicide prevention and that sort of thing. They all address the immediate solution, but we are not looking at the "why." I wanted to touch on a different subject. I don't expect the Minister to respond, but I wouldn't have minded her giving me that kind of answer. Then, we would know, as legislators, where the problems are. We might be able to deal with it. We certainly could support the Minister in that direction, if she was to say publicly that those are some of the main factors.
Touching on custom adoption, Mr. Chairman, I believe many years ago, around 1983 or 1984, we were going to come up with a new legislation called the human rights code. I think it was called that at that time. Mr. Nerysoo took the initiative of taking the lead role in that direction. One of the main reasons why this code didn't go through was because of the collective rights of aboriginal people. One of the things that is coming up every year is that you are looking at a collective right and devolving it into an individual right, by virtue of tinkering with it. I don't know why you feel that we should have an act with regard to custom adoption. It says here in your definitive plan that, "in conjunction with the Department of Justice, legislative amendments are being proposed to simplify the process of native custom adoption. This will help to simplify the process and clear the backlog of applications to be registered through the courts."
I've looked at this and I've looked at other examples where this government has taken a lead role in fitting aboriginal customs into the existing system. In a lot of cases, I have to tell you, it's not working. If customs are recognized already, and they have been recognized in the Constitution, why should we be tinkering with it? Is there a legal requirement by this government to draft legislation with regard to aboriginal customs? Is it their responsibility to do that, or has that been recognized already under the Canadian Constitution? And, if it is, why are we looking at doing things in this area?