Mr. Speaker, the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry has advocated major constitutional reform.
Constitutional changes require patience, obviously. They take a lot of time and require a lot of work.
Will he agree for the time being, according to the umbrella agreement between the Government of Quebec and the federal government—signed I believe by Paul Martin senior—to there being rules that can fill the gap he now finds in the constitutional system? That means that the federal government appoints a representative from one or all the provinces to a constitutional delegation when negotiating a treaty concerning provincial jurisdictions.
Second, it is clear that most of the treaties today are not self-executing. Federal legislation is required to establish them in Canadian municipal law.
Third, there is a distinction between Australia and Canada in jurisdiction over foreign affairs. Australian law, as interpreted by the supreme court, requires the precedence of any law incorporating an international treaty. The converse is true in Canada, according to a decision by the privy council in the matter of the 1937 conventions on labour law.