Mr. Speaker, if he thinks that food inspection is going to unite the country, the Prime Minister is living on another planet.
If one picks through the various announcements that come from the government, there are about five things in things in this supposed package. There are the proposals for administrative disentanglement. There are some token decentralization proposals. There is the veto proposal, the distinct society proposal and limited curtailment of federal spending powers.
If that is all there is, then the Prime Minister has misread the fundamental desire for substantial change in the rest of the country, just as he misread the desire for change within Quebec prior to the referendum.
Can the Prime Minister not offer Canadians and the provincial premiers something more substantive for revitalizing the federation?