Thank you for your intervention, Madam Speaker. They were popping up like a bunch of gophers over there and I was beginning to think I would get drowned out.
We have a piece of legislation that is being put together by senior bureaucrats ignoring the input that went into this debate from individuals who know what they are talking about, such as ranchers, aboriginal people and all kinds of groups that deal with these kinds of endangered species all the time. This information has been fed to the government through the committee and the government has ignored it. Anytime there is a law that is bad for people it cannot be good for other things.
We have to approach it from both sides of the coin. The government has not done so. It is making criminals out of law-abiding landowners. That has to stop. There is the onus of proof. How backward can it get? The government does not understand because it is not an expert on endangered species. It should start paying attention to the scientific community. That is what we are asking and that is what we will demand as the opposition. I only wish it would use its common sense, wake up and do the right thing.