Mr. Speaker, at this point I would rather make a comment than ask a question of my colleague, the member for Rosemont, whom I thank sincerely, especially for helping out the Reform Party colleague who is wondering why the Bloc Quebecois does not support his party's amendment.
As you no doubt know much better than I, Mr. Speaker, with your broad experience and generally recognized expertise, there are different procedural tactics for delaying the passage of a bill at second reading.
First, a motion may be moved that it be postponed for six months. Second, a motion may be moved that it not be read the second time but that the objectives of the bill be referred to the committee under whose jurisdiction it comes. Third, and this is the approach of our Reform Party colleagues, a motion may be moved that the bill not be read the second time because of the absence of fundamental principles.
This is the approach the Reform Party has taken. It has invoked the absence of principles from the bill and, when I spoke last week, I was even surprised that the amendment was deemed votable. I was very surprised at this, given that our reading of the bill is not at all the same as that of the Reform Party. The principles the Reform Party is raising do not seem to us to be absent from the bill.
The fact that we cannot support the principles, which the Reform Party claims are not to be found in the bill, is the reason we in the Bloc Quebecois will not be able to support the Reform Party's amendment to the effect that second reading not take place.
It is unfortunate that we could not come up with one single amendment for the opposition. We will still not support the amendment, but we will not be supporting the bill either. As all of our colleagues here have pointed out, this bill blocks any progress on environmental matters, because before we can get to protecting the environment we have to battle over who has jurisdiction here and who has jurisdiction there, when it would have been so simple to follow the example of the Saguenay-St. Lawrence marine park.
In closing, I would ask my colleague, who was involved in environmental matters, whether he can enlighten me a bit on the differences between provincial and federal jurisdiction over the environment.