I appreciate it, Mr. Chair, because I do think this is an important discussion to be had, and the things they are bringing up allow me to address their concerns, obviously. I would say that having this treaty tabled and referenced to this committee, much the way we're doing this bill, it would have been interesting to have had that previous agreement that was signed. Over the last couple of evenings I read the agreement with the MNA. It would have been interesting to have had that before our committee prior to its signing, so as parliamentarians we could scrutinize what the government was saying and doing on behalf of Canadians, on behalf of the Crown. Are they abiding by generally accepted norms on these things? Have they considered all of the ramifications?
It's obvious that the government has failed a lot in this bill, because we have a long list of folks who have showed up here being opposed to this. I would suggest perhaps the government should not have put the Alberta agreement, the Saskatchewan agreement and the Ontario agreement all in one bill. Again, going back to my last amendment—collectivities versus communities—the regional differences in this country lead to these sorts of things. We want to ensure the government is treating folks with respect and not trying to fit square pegs into round holes, which I sometimes feel this particular bill is attempting to do. It's concerned with trying to do a one-size-fits-all, and it's trying to maybe make different Métis communities compete against each other, maybe play one Métis entity against another. Also, perhaps by putting all three of these groups into one bill, it doesn't allow for clarity around the verbiage we use.
Why we've moved this amendment is to ensure that, when a treaty is signed onto, it doesn't happen in some backroom bunker here in Ottawa, but it would be tabled in the House of Commons for the scrutiny of a committee to ensure that this is something we can all get behind to bring this country together, rather than dividing this country. This Prime Minister's really good at dividing this country. Rather than dividing the country, bills like this would ensure that Canadians are united and that Canadians can be proud of their country.