Mr. Speaker, the minister's contempt for this line of questioning is the same contempt she shows for the provinces.
The minister has unilaterally banned the use of lead shot. She is unilaterally banning the use of MMT and benzene as fuel additives. The minister is setting standards for greenhouse gas emissions without real consultation. The minister stopped all the harmonization talks and scuttled progress on transferring control of the inland fisheries to the provinces. The concerns of the provinces are met not with understanding but with the minister's reverse charm and recycled rat pack tactics.
Why does the minister stubbornly cling to the centralizing prejudices and policies of the seventies when decentralization is the watchword of the 1990s?