Madam Speaker, I appreciate the very straightforward and relevant question from the member for Peterborough. My simple response is this: where has he been? What I have said is that the difficulty I have with this legislation is the cruelty to animals provisions.
I have heard from a number of stakeholders who are concerned, including farmers, those who operate slaughterhouses, those in the trapping and fur industry and those who deal with animals regularly as part of their livelihood. They want to come before committee. That is what would hold up the bill. These people want a legitimate opportunity to come before the committee and put their concerns on the record, which might lead to possible amendments.
I will give the government its due. It has made some amendments to those animal cruelty provisions, which have answered a great deal of what the industry was concerned about, but it is not there yet. The stakeholders want to see some possible amendments. In particular, they want an opportunity to find out if criminal charges might result from practices they are currently carrying out. That is their concern, which is very legitimate.
Similarly, there is the firearms provision. The Progressive Conservative Party has said since the introduction of Bill C-68 that it does not agree with this billion dollars or more that will be accumulated in public costs before this legislation will be in effect. We oppose it. To be consistent, we are not particularly quick to embrace the firearms provisions of this omnibus bill, but that is the point. It is an omnibus bill. It is all or nothing. It is take all of these provisions or take none.
What I am suggesting is that this legislation, but for those two provisions, would pass quickly through the House with the unanimous support of the opposition. The government would get its way. The bill itself, in every other way but for those two provisions, would be passed. Those two provisions would be returned in the fall as stand alone bills. They would have advanced from the point they are at now and would pass quickly in the fall.
That is what could be done instead of carrying over the whole bill and having it spend the summer sitting on the order paper when it could be in effect. The Internet stalking and pornography provisions in the criminal code would take effect by the end of the month and would start to protect young people immediately. We would beef up the sanctions that attach to police officers who are attacked by people in an effort to remove their firearms. It would beef up the stalking provisions in the criminal code and it would toughen the sanctions that attach for those who harass women and children.
That is all I am suggesting: to divide the bill up in a very logical way, remove the controversy, bring those provisions back, and pass the rest of it part and parcel in this legislation before we go home. Let us do something good before we leave instead of just jacking up our own pay.