The first officials to ask about our view were from the American embassy, two weeks ago. They invited us to the bunker to chat. We invited them back to our office instead.
Nobody from either the previous government or this one has asked anyone, as far as I know--not just us, but any environmental group, education group, or health care organization. All of our groups are in the dark on this.
In fact, two years ago we held a cross-country citizens' inquiry into Canada-U.S. relations. We had very good representation. We had members as citizens' juries hearing the testimony from all political parties. We heard from Canadians from all over the country, including Quebec, that they did not know anything about this process. So we held our own inquiry, which gave them an opportunity to say what kind of continent they would like, what values in this North American shared space they would like.
We heard from all sorts of groups, including small businesses who felt left out of it too. The common thread we heard over and over was that they were so glad to have a place to speak to this, because nobody had asked their opinion on it.
This process was guided by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the C.D. Howe Institute, and the Liberal government at the time. It has been handed in that form to this government, which has, in my opinion, deepened the commitments.