Hon. Scott Tannas: If I remember correctly, you were talking about the deal in Saskatchewan. The deal in Saskatchewan, as I understand it, has an interesting formula that involves a percentage going to the host nation and a percentage going into a pot for all First Nations, and then the non-First Nations casinos, obviously overseen by the province, also contributed into that pot that goes to the benefit of all First Nations, which was a negotiated deal that has some interesting history to it.

The point is this: Our bill would not seek to preserve or to kill that. Our bill recognizes and seeks to affirm the jurisdiction of the communities. They will decide what they will do. If there is a wealth redistribution scheme that needs to happen, they will make that decision. If there’s a wealth redistribution scheme that needs to happen in uranium mining, oil and gas, forestry or whatever, where maybe a community that isn’t close to those resources gets something, they can decide all of those things. We don’t get to decide that and the province doesn’t get to decide that.

It’s probably fair to say that in the province of Saskatchewan — and maybe it was trial and error or maybe it was circumstance — it’s probably the deal that is fairest for host First Nations, and indeed for non-host First Nations. Maybe it will be a model that will run rampant across the country. But that is for those governments to decide, just like wealth redistribution is done in our federation with transfer payments and equalization.