Mr. Chair, perhaps I misdirected my comments. Perhaps I should be speaking directly to Mr. Thériault.
I would agree that collaboration must take place with all the provinces, but we have seen pieces of legislation where this government has said that it will collaborate, work through and speak to all the stakeholders—provinces and what have you. However, what we have seen over the last nine years is that it has not done that, whether it's 12 months, 18 months or a rushed piece of legislation.
I would ask, implore and see that you are.... Mr. Thériault is essentially the kingmaker here in terms of this piece of legislation. His vote matters with regard to this piece of legislation. It matters all of the time, but it makes a difference whether it is 12 months or 18 months.
I would ask, through you, Mr. Chair, that Mr. Thériault reconsider where his vote is going to land on this. This is an opportunity for us to, once again, send a message to the government that this matters, that it is a priority and that we can get to work doing it right away.
The proponent of the bill, Mr. MacGregor, has stated why it is so important that we get to work on this. It's been a rare chance where opposition comes together in recent months and years to defend a piece of legislation that another opposition party has put forward.
This is an amendment.I get it. I understand. I've had pieces of legislation myself. I've agreed to that time frame. I've argued pieces of legislation where the government has said that it has consulted and has done the work, and we know that it hasn't.
Regardless of whether it's 12 months or 18 months, we know that it's going to miss it. However, we know that if we send a message today to the brain injury group that we have held firm in what the initial drafting of this piece of legislation was and that we are saying let's get to work on this, it sends a message to the government to get its house in order and get going on it. It's true collaboration.
That also can be directed, should it choose to work collaboratively with the proponent of the piece of legislation, which is what we did when we had our national framework on post-traumatic stress disorder. We worked with the government on how our framework was going to roll out. There are opportunities with that.
I would leave it at that, and I would ask that Mr. Thériault perhaps reconsider. It's one last piece of amendment on this piece of the bill, and hopefully we can move forward with it.