Historic legislation is important. The Canadian space station is an historic occurrence. There is no question that the development, the co-operation and the resulting influence from the research that will be done up there will be historic. It is going to be a preparation for greater things to come in space, including a trip to Mars. Speaking with those in the area of research focused on that particular station, I know that is a very close agenda. Maybe with some exceptions, probably most of us here will be alive to see that happen.
However, there is another historic piece of legislation that was never debated in the House and that was the Nisga'a agreement. The government shut it down before we could get to the nitty-gritty, the nub of the matter. There are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people who are unhappy with that agreement.
We have an agreement here that everyone agrees with but we are still debating it. We can laud all the possibilities that the space station will bring to the country, if not to the world, but let us talk about the country because we are the ones who are contributing to it.
We are also contributing to the Nisga'a agreement as to what may come of it in the end. As members of the opposition party, we have a responsibility to deal with that very complicated issue and complicated bill. I do not know if most people realize this, but there are two books that deal only with the Nisga'a agreement. It is very significant in scope.
I do not remember who the speaker was, but he or she identified the Nisga'a treaty as the balkanization of Canada.