Mr. Speaker, yes. The commission report was made public in 1967, four and a half years later. It is true that the government changed during that time.
When the Carter Commission made its recommendations public, it toured the country. This is a rather interesting story. Many people in mining and other industries had interests to protect. Various sectors of the economy wanted to have their say.
The minutes of this tour are a real mixed bag. Everyone came to complain, to say what suited them best. They did not look at the bigger picture of how all Canadians could be affected. Whether it was the oil industry, the mining industry or others, everybody was out to look after their own interests. There were a lot of pressures at the time not to do this or that.
In a democratic system, it is only natural for the government to be under pressure to do one thing or another. There were pressures from everywhere. The building industry even threatened to stop working. It feared the government might impose recommendations made by the Carter commission.
As the result of all these pressures, the government more or less decided to take its time, let things cool down and gradually implement the Carter commission's recommendations.
It took a number of years, but the first attempt was made by Allan MacEachen. In 1980, he made several recommendations. There was a very heated debate in the House. When later I raised the issue with the Hon. Allan MaEachen, I told him that the recommendations put forward would have been beneficial. He agreed. However, there were as usual so many outside pressures, threats to shut down entire sectors of the economy, that he withdrew his proposals. That is unfortunately how it went.