Mr. Chair, I am worried about the answers that I just heard from the parliamentary secretary. It now looks like the $5 billion is negotiable.
The Liberal member for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing said as much in his speech earlier this evening. He said that he thought there was some wriggle room around the $5 billion owed to Canada because of the dispute with the United States. He used the words “wriggle room” when he talked about the $5 billion, and we should negotiate away some of the money we won in the dispute settlement mechanism.
We now have the government backing away. We heard this today in question period. I understand why the member for Vancouver Island North was all of a suddened concerned about the $3.5 billion figure. Where did that come from? Clearly, the government is backing away again from its commitment to stand by this negotiation and to stand by what is owed Canadians in this industry, and industry that has been so hard hit by the illegal action of the United States.
I find it unbelievable that we are going down that road. Now we are willing to negotiate away the money that is owed to Canada.