Madam Speaker, we have a very serious situation on our hands. As everybody can appreciate, it is very serious for those of us who live in coastal communities and for those of us who live along the sea.
It always disturbs me when I hear the situation presented as the hon. member who just spoke presented it, to rehear the case. It reminds me of people tossing a coin to see who goes first. If they do not get the right answer they go for the best two out of three. If they still do not get the right answer they go for the best three out of five. They want to keep going until they get it the way they want it.
It seems very unusual to talk about rehearing a supreme court decision. I wonder if the hon. member would have taken the same position if the decision had come down not in favour of the aboriginal treaties.
We have a very serious situation. The court has ruled. It has made a decision. We should now be focusing our attention on giving a practical application to the decision that will be beneficial to all who are involved, to all the stakeholders in the industry. We have to do that through negotiation, which is where the government has fallen down. It waited until the decision came down before it looked at the prospect of negotiation despite the fact that Delgamuukw had talked about negotiation and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples had spoken about negotiation.
We have known for a long time that there must be a sharing of resources and that it must be done in a way that will maintain peace and harmony but we wait until a very crucial decision comes and now it comes down to one side against the other side, communities being divided against communities.
I have heard a lot of goodwill spoken on this issue by people on all sides, by the aboriginal people and by non-aboriginal people who want to resolve this issue in a favourable way. This is where the minister and the government must take the lead and show leadership. They must not wait and see whether the negotiations have broken down. They must not wait and see if the traps have been pulled. Rather, they must initiate leadership and do something now. It is great to hear about the long term plans but we have an immediate situation that must be dealt with now. It is a matter of getting the priorities around the table now to deal with the crisis that is facing us.