Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague opposite for his questions. I have the greatest respect him. In our previous lives we used to correspond a lot, but we never actually came face to face until we came to the House. I do not think it was a surprise to either of us that we have a fair number of things in common when it comes to municipal concerns.
First, this legislation will treat the federal government as a taxpayer, just like everyone else. The government will pay on time. It will pay penalties if it does not. The bill will ensure that if there is an assessment question the government will go through the same process as taxpayers go through.
As far as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is concerned, it was briefed two weeks ago. The minister in June 1998 went to the FCM convention along with the Prime Minister. It is too bad the Leader of the Opposition was not there. He missed a tremendous speech on this issue.
This is what happened. The minister, in consultation with the FCM, in June said to over 2,000 delegates “I want to hear from you”, which is why the round tables were set up across the country. I am sure the minister met with mayors and councillors in their ridings to get feedback so that the minister would hear the concerns of the grassroots. That is what happened.
The bill will be going to committee after second reading. I can guarantee members that the president of the FCM will be there and that he will make any comments with regard to anything in the legislation that the FCM may have a question about. But to suggest for a moment that it was not briefed is not the case. I do not know to whom he was speaking at the FCM, but the executive director and the policy director were fully briefed. They knew what was in the bill. Two weeks have gone by and my phone is not broken, but they did not call me.