As a point of information, as referenced a little earlier by Mr. Telegdi, I have a private member's motion that was tabled in our House of Commons on April 4 under M-19--I'm just waiting for translations to arrive so I can distribute it--that deals with this specific issue.
If you know the peculiarities of our system here, on private members' bills and motions there is a lottery that takes place. Unfortunately, I don't typically buy lottery tickets, and this lottery established why I don't. I came up as number 230. So by the time this is dealt with...who knows whether this government will even survive that sort of timeline. But for your reference, I would like to distribute this by the time this meeting is done.
I've had numerous conversations with the department on this particular issue, and I have as yet not heard any good reasons, other than risk aversion and almost an Iron Curtain mentality.... Although the Iron Curtain fell a number of years ago, in their minds it seems to still exist, or they'd like to pretend it still exists. That's quite problematic, because the world has changed significantly since that time. But at least you can be assured that a number of parties in our House of Commons are very supportive of this position and would like to see this expedited.
It's unfortunate that the only reason it might be expedited and the government might move on this.... We don't have to wait for this motion. The government has the capacity to move on this expeditiously within the timelines you have spoken about.
So if you aren't very encouraged with your discussions in the ministry, at least be encouraged that there is quite a bit of support for this position in the House of Commons, as well as with the Canadian public.