Madam Speaker, I appreciate the attendance of the minister and his participation in the debate. I think it is extremely important. As he said, the implications are grave. This is probably the biggest and most complicated file that this ministry has faced in decades.
I want to be very clear on this. I would never want to mislead the House or misrepresent the facts in the debate. My understanding is that the minister has floated the idea of changing the 10% rule. He has not said that he would or he would not.
However, the crux of the matter is that this causes confusion within the industry. This causes the participants in the debate to feel like they are on unstable ground as to what is going to happen next. The lack of policy, the lack of leadership and firm commitment as to what the rules of engagement are, is causing a great deal of misunderstanding, mistrust and confusion among the proponents and among Canadians.
I would encourage the minister to be perhaps more definitive and more diligent in making his position clear to Canadians and making his government's policy or plan clear to Canadians so that we do not have issues swirling out there in the public debate and this furore over what is going to happen and the confusion and consternation. That is not what is needed.
We need firm leadership from this minister and the minister of fisheries on other issues, and many issues that are out there right now. I am certainly glad that we have the ability to debate this in the House.
However, it would have been nice if we had been back here on the start-up date that was initially proposed in September. We would have had a better opportunity to look at all of these issues at an earlier instance.