Mr. Speaker, a strike or a lockout is looming for the nation's railways. The negotiating parties have had 13 months to reach a collective agreement on their own and they have failed.
If such a strike or lockout were to occur, the country's transportation network would grind to a halt within days. It would devastate shippers of coal, potash and newsprint, paralyse the auto industry and, as usual, leave western grain farmers footing the bill for somebody else's irresponsibility.
The cost of such a strike to our economy is just too high and the government knows this. That is why for the 14th time in the last 29 years we will have no choice but to suspend the rules of the House in order to pass emergency back to work legislation. If and when this happens it will be the second time in two years. I hope we have not already forgotten the Vancouver port strike experience.
My private member's bill, Bill C-262, offers a permanent solution to this chronic problem. Let us pass Bill C-262 so that we do not find ourselves in the same position again this year.