Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to make a comment on the committee report on Bill 25. I wanted to thank the committee for travelling into my constituency and listening to the people in my constituency. There was a presentation made by a representative from each of the six communities that I represent, more so from the people in Fort Simpson. There was a good presentation made there to the committee. I'm satisfied that this committee went out to listen to the people in the communities. Just looking at the document it's obvious that this committee had done a thorough job of going out and trying to get feedback from as many people as they could in the time that they had. I would like to commend the Standing Committee on Legislation for a job well done.
Mr. Chairman, this act is a big act. It involves everybody in the north. It's going to effect how we deal with education in the north for the next decade or so, therefore, it's a very important document. Because it is a very important document, all the concerns have to be looked at and amendments have to be made to this bill. There's going to be debate on this bill for the next few days. I just wanted to make comments on a couple of items on this report.
The first one is with regard to treaty and aboriginal rights. I raised this to the committee Members in Fort Simpson and it was raised here today by other colleagues. This treaty right that I'm referring to in my constituency is Treaty 11. This has always been a concern to me, even before I was involved as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. It's a treaty that was made between a representative of the Dene and a representative of the Crown on how things should be done. It covers a number of areas and one of them is the whole area of education. It's in the treaty, it's in the preamble of the treaty. In my constituency the treaty negotiations took a number of days to be concluded.
In that whole process the understanding of the Dene in that area was that once this treaty was agreed upon, the intent of the treaty was that free education would be provided to the Dene people by the Canadian government.
The evolution of education in the north is that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this authority was turned over to the Government of the Northwest Territories from Ottawa without the involvement of treaty people. The whole process, the transfer, the devolution happened without the involvement of the treaty people, to whom this particular program was very important. People in power at the time never saw fit to involve the chiefs and leaders of the day.
So we are dealing with this fact. One of the things that I would like to see is that this be cleared up once and for all or it's going to be with us forever. These are the questions that Chiefs in my constituency have been asking for a long time.
It's now addressed in the preamble with the amendment, but I don't think it's strong enough. I think it's going to have to be stronger than just a mention in the preamble, because what I am dealing with is the day-to-day reality that there are people who are treaty from my constituency and probably from other regions as well who are told by our elders that we have a treaty with the government, that this territorial government is an administrative arm of the federal government and therefore the authority should be flowing from the Canadian constitution.
So, that's what I am told, but when it comes to the actual day-to-day practice, there are many people coming to me saying, we thought education was a treaty right. Why am I refused funding, for example, or why am I not allowed to take this course, and why is the government not funding me to go to school, because this is what our ancestors agreed to?
So we find ourselves in a dilemma. Usually I go to the Minister, and usually I get a long letter saying why these things cannot be done. So it's a dilemma I am in. That's why I am saying that it has to be cleared up.
Perhaps it's in because of the regulations or the policies, the way they are interpreted, after a bill goes through. So this is where whoever makes the regulations and the policies has to have a clear understanding of what I am talking about. I think it's been missing. Whoever develops the regulations and the policies on how these bills are interpreted has to take that into consideration. So this is the point I would like to make.
I know the Minister is saying that we are not here to interpret what the treaty says, but the way the people in my area understand the treaty is that it was an agreement that this service would be provided to people. So I want to make it really clear here where I am coming from, that it has to be in the act one way or the other.
The answers that I have heard in the past are that this government recognizes the Canadian constitution, and section 35 of the Canadian constitution states that all existing aboriginal treaty rights will be recognized and affirmed. But when it comes to the specific bills that govern this government, it does not clearly state how section 35 flows into all our bills and how these bills and then the regulations and policies that flow from the bills, how section 35 flows through it until we get into the day-to-day practice of this government. This is where my concern is. A lot of the students in the communities don't really have a clear understanding of all the bills, for example section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, but they know they are treaty Indian and have treaties that state that education is a treaty right and it should flow from there.
If this bill is going to be in place for the next 10 years, and I understand that's the game plan, then it has to be in there and it has to be spelled out very clearly that the bill flows from section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. I'm glad, at least, that there is an amendment to the original bill and it's in the preamble, but like I'm saying, it's not strong enough. I think it should be stronger than that and it should be spelled out more.
Going on the quality and standards of education, I raised this issue in the Standing Committee on Finance. We feel that the excellence of education should be a philosophy throughout the north. I'm glad it was adopted...