Mr. Speaker, I get the impression that the hon. member is mixing things up but, since we must always assume that people are acting in good faith, I will not say "deliberately". However, when developing major policies, a ruling party has to conduct consultations throughout the land, to reach as many people as possible to develop a consensus.
I know that the government does consult. It has even been criticized, and rightly so, for consulting regularly and often unnecessarily on some issues or subjects. Yesterday, in the debate on the motion concerning the committee set up by the Minister of Finance to review business taxation, we pointed out that this committee may not have been the ideal forum for consultation the minister could have devised.
But when it comes to the general thrust of a country's socio-economic policies, I think that the government never once brought labour and the business community together as part of consultations on this subject. I would like the hon. member who just spoke to tell me this. Is it superfluous to gather all the socio-economic players around the same table in an attempt to create a consensus?