Mr. Speaker, the provinces stated their position in June and we replied in July. It took them six months to come to an agreement. We are not blaming them, because this is a complex issue.
We replied to the provinces in July, and the Quebec premier took an interest in this issue in August. When the Quebec premier is not there to take a leadership role, it is always more complicated.
It took us much less time to agree on the need to clarify the federal spending power—because we started in February 1996—than it took the Conservative government, which had eight years to do so, but did nothing.