Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the hon. House leader of the government on this very important issue.
I want to begin my very brief comments by saying that the Reform Party, as the official opposition, supports the bill. We support this initiative by the government, but we do not support fast tracking it. We see no need for that.
Very seldom do we see a situation where all four opposition parties agree. In this case, at the special legislative committee formed to study Bill C-20, when meeting to discuss setting the agenda for the committee, all four opposition parties agreed that the committee should travel to seek the widest possible input from Canadians on this issue of importance. I find it ironic that the Prime Minister, before Christmas, touted Bill C-20 as an extremely important bill for Canada, for the national unity of our country, and yet the Liberal members on the committee said “It is not all that important. There are only three clauses. It is no big deal. We do not need to have much input from Canadians. We will hold committee hearings here over the next week or week and a half and we will ram it through. No problem”.
I ask the hon. government House leader to address this concern of all Canadians. Why, when all opposition parties say the committee should be allowed to travel, in particular to Quebec, is the government refusing?