No, I am not going to resign. I am glad the member said that because it makes me a bit more angry. If I hear even a whisper of it again on the Nisga'a bill, the House will come to a screeching halt. If the government thinks I am kidding, it should just try me.
It is the height of arrogance to table this space agency bill after the Nisga'a bill and expect us to stand here and pretend we will all be happy. We will listen to how nice the bill is and what a sweetheart deal we have when in fact we have been slapped in the face and told the government does not want to hear about our opposition to Nisga'a. I think it has another thought coming.
I could hold on to this bill, which I just might yet, and debate it for a couple of days. We will talk about Nisga'a while I am doing it and a bit about a few other things. Yes, I may be called me on relevance once in a while. Yes, I may call quorum more than once and play all those silly games. As of yesterday and the Nisga'a debate in the House, 23 of my colleagues were sitting here who did not have the opportunity to speak to the Nisga'a bill, many of whom are from British Columbia. That is unacceptable.
Today we stand in the House to talk about the space agency bill, something we all agree with, and we have two Liberals in the House talking to each other over there and not even listening. As long as we occupy the time of the House of Commons the government is okay with that, as long as we agree, but when we do not agree as with the Nisga'a legislation it is unforgivable. We have to rush it through the House, do we not?
Given that there is only a couple of them over there and they are not listening, we should wake them up a little. I could call quorum but I do not think I will because there are committees in place. We will have to discuss this bill for a while and see where it goes. At the same time we will make reference and comparison throughout to the disgusting process which took place on the Nisga'a legislation.
We have taxation without representation in the Nisga'a legislation. We have constitutional concerns and all kinds of issues yet to discuss on that bill, but we cannot get our hands on it because it was rushed through the House on time allocation.
Yet I see on the space agency bill that a little over $1 billion will be spent. That is fine. We will just sit here, talk about that, smile and all be happy. That is just plain unacceptable to me. As House leader I will be talking to my colleagues tomorrow in our caucus. I will make the points that we are sick and tired of time allocation closure on bills, that we will not put up with it any longer, and that we might just talk about all these bills a little longer.
I have one comment about the space agency bill which the government has not really considered. I well understand that another head office like that of Air Canada and all the other head offices will end up in Quebec. When will the government see fit to put one in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton or Calgary one of these day? We do have a little technology out there, believe it or not.
If we look at some of the good companies in Vancouver, I am sure they could match the technology. Why is it that we get a $1.6 billion space agency program, which is an excellent program, and it happens to sit in Quebec? Why is that? Time after time that happens.
If we look at the value of the space agency to the country, I do not think there is any question about the technology and the possibility that our young people will get jobs and that sort of thing. However, once in a while the government should give us the opportunity to have just a wee bit in the west.
I will get back to the comparison. If the space agency project is to be a good project, it is not just international and our participation in space and technology. It is more than that to me. It is young people who should be training now for 10 years from now, those who will be working on this project.
Are the universities fitting in? Has the government seen fit to bother to try to help with programs at post-secondary institutions for students to get jobs in this regard, or will we be importing jobs applicants from other countries? Should we expand the operation? Should we put satellite companies in other parts of the country? Should we ask our technicians, our young people, for participation and for ideas on the agency? How do we promote the space agency even more than it is being promoted today?
I do not think the government has thought a lot about these things. It just looks at it and says that it has another project in Quebec and it will make it work. I think there is a future for our young people to be involved and it should be looked at.
If the space agency bill is to pass the House, with which we all agree, I repeat once again that it is time the government understood that it cannot keep bringing bills like this one into the House expecting our agreement when bills with which we adamantly disagree are rammed through the House on time allocation. I have no intention whatsoever any longer of living with the government's agenda, its timeframe. If we disagree with or even if we agree with legislation it is highly likely that we will talk about it for a while, as in the case of this bill.
When we get into issues like that of the space agency, I hope the House understands that all those involved should be prepared for questions and for longer debates. If members on the other side do not have the courtesy to do that with an important bill which involves billions of dollars and affects the Nisga'a constitution, I think we will have to insist that they do it on all bills.
I will sum up. We may yet move an amendment through one of our members to extend the debate, putting emphasis on the Nisga'a agreement which my colleagues have not yet had the opportunity to fully discuss. We may have discussions about relevance in the House. I am prepared for that and I am prepared for a long debate in that regard, but it is time we gave notice to the House that we will discuss what the official opposition wants to discuss. I do not give two rats about the government's agenda.
We will agree with Bill C-4. We will discuss further Bill C-4. I will bet that between now and Christmas we will be discussing the Nisga'a agreement for many more hours rather than the four hours and twelve minutes we were given up to yesterday.