Mr. Speaker, I reiterate the concern of my colleague from Cape Breton, myself and all NDP members of parliament about the behaviour of the government in this instance.
As members know, there have been previous points of order having to do with announcements not being made in the House. That is a separate point and I acknowledge it.
If announcements are not to be made in the House of Commons, where many of them should be made and are not, then at least when the government makes announcements elsewhere it should have the decency to involve at least the members of parliament who are directly affected through participation in the lock-up and through prior notice of when the meeting is to take place and when the announcement is to take place.
At the very least the government should not indicate the day before the announcement is made that there is not to be an announcement. What happened in this case is that the member from Cape Breton was told in a bare faced way that there would be no announcement. Then there was.
This is totally reprehensible and is something the minister should answer for if not in the context of a question of privilege then at least politically.