Mr. Speaker, my inclination is to say what drivel, except that I believe the hon. member was very sincere in what she said. She said it was time to legislate.
It is long past time to legislate. We have been calling for this since the summer. Finally, the Liberal government has started to listen to us, the Canadian people, businesses, charities and individuals who have been harmed by this strike. Why has it taken it two weeks to do this?
The hon. member who just spoke said quite eloquently that businesses are losing money, they are laying off people. That is true and it has been true for the last two weeks of this strike. Charities are losing money, 80% of their revenues. That is also true, and it has been true for the last two weeks. We told the Liberal government. Why did it not listen to us?
The member talked about the collective bargaining system. It has three parts; negotiate, conciliate and mediate. It has always been there. We can put a settlement mechanism in place for when those things break down as they have done not only this time, but four times in the last 10 years.
I do believe the hon. member was sincere although misguided because she is so late in making her declarations. This is the fourth strike in 10 years, the third time in 10 years that is has resulted in legislation. The previous government recognized the need to legislate. This government, belatedly, is recognizing the need for legislation. How many more times in the future are we going to let the businesses, the charities and the people she lamented about suffer before we bring in a permanent solution to this ongoing problem?