Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Simcoe North said at the outset that the premiers oppose an arbitrary deadline. If that is the case, how would he characterize the statement in their accord of August 6 of this year which states “The premiers stressed that negotiations should now proceed with a view to concluding a draft agreement by the end of the year”? Was that an arbitrary deadline? Was it not? If so, what is the difference between that statement and the deadline proposed in this motion? That is my first question.
My second question is, if he does not want arbitrary deadlines and if he does not like the one in this motion, why did he and his colleagues oppose two efforts to amend our motion to extend the deadline? Does he have a better idea? Does he have another deadline in mind, or no deadline at all? Did he just want this to go on indefinitely as it has for 30 years?