Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest has more experience than I do in this House. He clearly knows that the rules provide for a 45 day delay. He says several months; 45 days normally is a month and a half.
On this side of the House we were so confident in the member's re-election, because of the effective work he has done in New Brunswick Southwest, that we would not have wanted to deprive him of being able to put on the order paper in this Parliament a question which he so enjoyed seeing on the order paper in the last Parliament.
I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, that we take the standing orders very seriously. There is no effort whatsoever on the part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to not answer the question in a timely manner. There is so much good news coming from the aboriginal fisheries licence program and the aboriginal fisheries strategy that to put together all of this good news and to show how effective the program has been will take some time.
The program has been a considerable success in my own riding. I know the member for New Brunswick Southwest will want to celebrate this success when he gets his answer in the prescribed time period.