I think it is fair to say that the hon. member and I see the legislation differently. As he made clear in his previous presentation to the House, he sees this as taking away authority from the provinces and giving it to the federal government. That is simply not the case. I have seen nothing and he has pointed out nothing in this legislation which would indicate this is what is happening.
This is a consolidation. It is not something that just happened over the last number of weeks or months. This discussion has been going on for years. As the minister indicated this morning, there has been an evolution here. We are going back to the 1970s or maybe before that when various powers and various consolidations were being discussed. A lot of things have happened internationally that we have to establish in our own legislation. There is a recognition in the act of the merger of the coast guard and DFO which is relatively new.
To suggest there is something in this legislation that is affecting the powers of the provinces could not be further from the truth. This legislation does not state that. The hon. member has not been able to point out to me either here in the House or during any discussion that this is what the legislation does. That is clearly not what is in the legislation and it is not the intent of the legislation. I
would suggest his motive is something other than trying to create a good piece of oceans legislation.