Thank you.
Of course, I appreciate the efforts of members of this committee in the House to get this bill to committee and to deal with it as quickly as possible. I appreciate that, and I appreciate your words about understanding the importance of the bill. And of course we're responding to a court order.
I think I mentioned this the last time I was here, but just to confirm it, we've also applied to the court for an extension. I don't know if they'll give it to us, but they can see that we've tabled the legislation. I think every good faith measure has been taken to try to get this done as quickly as possible. They may or may not grant us an extension. That's up to the court.
If no extension is granted on the suspension of the application of the court ruling, what that means is that the decision of the Court of Appeal in British Columbia only applies in British Columbia. In other words, it won't apply right across the country. This will only apply in British Columbia. So the coming into force of the invalidity of that section would mean that no new registrations could be made in British Columbia.
Now it's important to reassure people that this does not affect anyone who has status. Anyone who has status maintains status. The rest of the country isn't affected at all. It's business as usual in nine provinces and in the territories. And people who have to renew their cards or their status in British Columbia aren't affected. They'll be able to renew. Who it affects are those people in the subsections 6(1) and 6(2) categories, and it would only apply, again, in British Columbia.
Obviously, it's not ideal, but it's not the end of the world if we take a couple of weeks to get this done. Again, just to assure people, no person with Indian status in the country will lose status. No one will. That's just to assure people, because there are rumours out there.
The other provinces won't be affected at all. What you've been used to dealing with is exactly what you'll deal with post-April 6. Within British Columbia itself, if they don't grant an extension, it will only apply to that very narrow group of people who fit into the court's ruling itself.
Overall, it's not good, because it perpetuates the gender inequity. But I think if we can get this through fairly quickly, the number of people who are going to be affected will be affected only for weeks, a couple of weeks maybe, or however long it takes, and only in the one province. It's serious, but it's not a crisis. It's not as if people are not going to be able to get their status cards or need to worry about their current status. That's not the impact. But obviously, I think it's important that we try to deal with the court ruling on an important charter issue as quickly as possible.