Thank you.
Madam Chair, through you, I now want to refer to the private member's bill, Bill C-246, and quote Emmett Macfarlane again. He said, “Once you start violating representation by population and you are actually enacting policy or constitutional change to protect one province over the interests of the others”—these are Mr. Macfarlane's words—“I think that's when constitutional amendment becomes required and it would be more than just Parliament unilaterally doing it”.
I think what we've heard here is that, going by the census, Quebec currently represents just under 23% of Canada's population, yet, what's being proposed in Bill C-246 would guarantee Quebec no less than 25%, regardless of the population decline.
Would that require and trigger the amending formula? I guess what I really want to ask is, what challenges do you foresee holding up this process, if that were the case? It seems that doing this through a private member's bill could create quite a few challenges. Could you speak to that, Minister, through the chair?