I am simply going to reply to that comment and afterwards I will yield the floor to my colleagues.
I know the government has been talking about this for a long time. However, it has not been that long since the bill of rights itself was created. It is often when people see provisions on paper that they realize certain things.
I would like to say, in defence of the provinces, that even if they knew that the government was working on something, they did not know to what extent these responsibilities would land, as we say, “in their court”. If you read the report and the press releases the justice ministers issued following the last federal-provincial-territorial conference—and that was only a few months ago—you will see that the matter of the bill of rights seemed to be on the back burner.
This will not affect my life, but I think the government is going to have some serious problems. The bill of rights looks like it might have a rather difficult beginning. Once it is adopted by the House, it would not be superfluous to tour the provinces or at least to advise them that they have 180 days to get up to speed. It is a bit cavalier, in my opinion—and I say this with all due respect for my colleague across the way—to state that they knew this all along. According to what I read I did not get the impression that the provinces understood the scope of the responsibilities the bill of rights was going to impose on them.
If the government really wants this to be a success, it is going to have to put some basic elements in place, as regards promotion, among other things; this just happens to be one of its favourite areas. It needs to say that the new charter has been adopted, and so on and so forth. In fact, I am sure that is already planned.
You have to think of the fact that crown attorneys and police officers are going to have to proceed differently, throughout the country. The Canadian Parliament does not move fast, and provincial governments do not necessarily move any faster.
I don't know if other colleagues have any comments to make on this.