Mr. Speaker, yes indeed, the legislation would pre-empt parliament, and yes indeed, cabinet would be able to create these marine conservation areas in a vacuum. I am very concerned about that. That is reason enough to topple the bill as far as I am concerned.
We live in an age that is cluttered with information and new information. That applies to every trade association, every stakeholder group, provincial, federal and municipal levels of government and the citizen at large.
One of the things that this or any parliament does is to open a window and allow people to catch up to the debate. It allows time for people who have an interest in the specifics to mobilize and to offer their input, pro, con and constructive. Those are the essentials of why we need to make that change, not only to this legislation but to any legislation. More and more of the legislation in this place is an enabling framework to allow either the bureaucracy to enact regulations or the cabinet to make decisions that basically are announced the next day by a press release or a press conference. The spin is managed and it is a done deal. That is not, in the long run, what is good for society.