Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a comment with respect to the speech that was just made. The Liberal government claims that it has had to force closure on this bill because it is so interested in helping business that it actually has to take away our right to speak on the bill. But I think government members are just paying lip service to this whole process. As long as they do not actually physically have to do something to help business, it is very easy for them to give away other people's money.
There is a group from British Columbia here in Ottawa this week from the forest industry. It is a broadly based group of unions and businesses which is trying to meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Labour to ask for help in countering a Greenpeace attack on the British Columbia forest industry. It is eco-terrorism. Greenpeacers are boarding vessels in Los Angeles. They are chaining themselves to the doors of Home Depots in the United States. This is a more broadly based group than one could find. It is desperately trying to meet with the government to ask for help, internationally, to save businesses and jobs in British Columbia and the government will not meet with them.
The government has done everything it can to fob them off, to make excuses and to cancel meetings. It has been impossible for a broadly based group of business interests and union interests to meet with the government.
If the Liberals are so concerned about small business, why do they not actually do something physically and go into a meeting with this group to discuss its concerns and to see what the government can actually do? We have made many suggestions about how government can help businesses by getting out of their lives, by cutting their taxes and by cutting down on regulations. Here is a role for government play.
In international aspects of trade, the government has a role and this government is refusing to fulfil its role.
I would ask the parliamentary secretary why the government is refusing to meet with the delegation from B.C.