Mr. Chair, we'll go to page 68.
I move that Bill C-47, in clause 2, be amended by adding after line 8 on page 68 the following:
(2) For greater certainty, subsection (1) does not preclude the granting of a minor variance or a ministerial exemption in respect of a project.
This gives some clarification to the act. Once again, these amendments are all brought forward by northern groups that must deal with this act after it's passed.
I think of the Conservatives' northern policy, its northern strategy of governance, I look at this and say, here are reasonable, careful amendments that have been made by northerners on this particular bill that is going to be used only by northern people. This is a bill for northern people. It's something that has to be accomplished, and here we have the government one time after another refusing to listen to the voice of northerners, who are simply trying to make the bill work better through their perspective. I don't hear the government arguing that these amendments are somehow improper. They're simply refusing to talk about them. I find that to be most distressing.
The government's vaunted northern strategy of governance seems to be, “We will set the rules for governance, and you will follow them”. I find that to be irresponsible and not in the Canadian model. Speaking as a northerner, a person who's lived and worked in the north all my life, I find this attitude to be somewhat strange. I'll make that point now, and I will leave it at that.
Here we have another amendment that is brought forward by experienced northern participants in the environmental assessment land-use planning process, and the government refuses to give any answers as to why it shouldn't accept these amendments. It simply continues to stonewall on this bill.