Mr. Speaker, I noticed in the comments of the member for New Brunswick Southwest that he said that some portions of this bill are not needed because negotiations are ongoing. I did not quite catch what he meant, but it was something to that effect.
If I understand correctly, this is to finalize compensation for land flooded for a hydroelectric project that dates back some 21 years. I am having an extremely difficult time understanding how such a project would go ahead without having the terms of the settlement in place before the project was undertaken.
As is the case with a lot of members of this House, I have some experience in municipal politics. I know that if a municipality built a road and annexed some land from neighbouring landowners, whether crown land, Indian reserves or fee simple land, and then later went back to the people who were affected and said “By the way, we built a road on your place and we would now like to start to negotiate what it is going to cost us for that right of way”, for the land that has been taken off the title or out of production or whatever, that is an absolutely backward way of doing business.
One of the most important considerations in a project that is going to go ahead is what the acquisition of the land is going to cost. That is something that has to be determined up front, not some 21 years later.
I wonder if the member for New Brunswick Southwest would like to clarify the comments he made so that I could better understand where he is coming from.