—they so often display, even today.
The clarity bill sets out the circumstances in which this House would say that the government of Canada would be required to undertake the negotiation of the separation of a province from Canada.
Of course, we all want the country to remain united and strong as it is now. The bill is reasonable. The government has imposed a reasonable approach. Day after day, we have witnessed the delaying tactics used to hold up the bill. Then, we moved it on to the next stage. We let it go unto the Order Paper about two months ahead of proceeding to the next stage, again in order to let the people take part in the process.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind the leader of the Bloc that, in 1997, when we were considering the non-denominational schools amendment, he said that the creation of a parliamentary committee not a travelling committee because the Bloc refused to hear about that was a stalling antidemocratic tactic and an affront to the democratic process. This held up the bill for five days.
There is nothing time wasting or antidemocratic about the process being followed by this government. On the contrary, we want the public to be involved; we want parliamentarians to be involved. This is why we used a reasonable approach under the very capable leadership of the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.