Mr. Chairman, this is a bad case of increasing cloudiness. One sure thing, Mr. Chairman, is that when you consider the facts, nobody can take offence from those words. The fact is that when we deal with a government bill based on Treasury Board guidelines, the government cannot give more than what it is ready to give in its own negotiations. That is the first point.
The second point is that the union has been offered 2% in a settlement proposal and that it has rejected it. That should also be taken into consideration.
The most important thing for us is that we should pass this bill as quickly as we can because businesses in Quebec are losing $54 million a day because of this strike. Charities that should receive millions of dollars through the mail are not getting anything. We should stop listening to that broken record of Bloc recriminations on behalf of the unions and take a cold hard look at the real situation. We should not only reject this amendment but also go on to consideration of the following clauses.