Mr. Speaker, I believe I have two questions for the hon. member. One is in relation to the time element here.
We know this process has been going on for a considerable amount of time. The only reference I noted concerning time, which I believe was in the agreement of September 22, which this bill is based on, was in relation to funding, where it said "the first five years". Does the hon. member foresee this as a long, ongoing process again, or do we have a five-year or ten-year objective here?
My second question relates to the bill. I think in clause 3 it actually says that the commission will assess the readiness of the principals to participate in the negotiations. What kind of authority does the word assessment mean? Does it mean they will assess and advise the principals that they are ready or not ready, or that they will assess and tell the principals that they can or cannot negotiate?