Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister.
While Ottawa and the provinces had promised to conclude an agreement on interprovincial trade liberalization by June 30, negotiations now appear to have broken down. According to the daily La Presse , the federal negotiators are even talking about a possible failure of negotiations if several provinces start asking for more and more exceptions.
My question is as follows: As negotiations are continuing in Toronto today, can the Deputy Prime Minister confirm that these negotiations have stalled because several provinces want to preserve the ability of their government corporations to intervene?