Mr. Speaker, I have two questions for the hon. member.
In his role as parliamentary secretary, is he quite satisfied with the length of time it has actually taken this government to bring this legislation to the House? As was said earlier, the legislation was already established through the agreement. It was just a matter of recopying it into a format for this House. I would like to know
whether he is satisfied with that type of delay of two years for something as straightforward as this.
The second question I have was referred to by the previous government speaker from Vancouver Centre, in which she implied that this commission has the authority to actually state whether or not the parties involved are ready to negotiate. That is not necessarily my interpretation of what the act actually states. It states that the commission can assess the readiness of the parties. I think that is possibly a little loose from the point of view of what the criteria are to base that assessment on. It could turn to a dictatorial type of thing from the commission's point of view that you must meet these specified criteria.