Madam Speaker, it appears to me that the question is actually asking the members of the opposition to do the work that the government is supposed to have done. Where has the government been since the Prime Minister made the promise to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador?
It is now being suggested that we should develop the technical language so as to give effect to the proposals. What was going on during the months of July, August, September and October? What was the government up to during that period? Taking a holiday and contemplating which promises it was going to be able to break?
This is a completely unacceptable proposition. It is being suggested to the members of the opposition, who intend to support the motion, that we should be sitting down and revising the motion to come up with the technical wording, so as to do the job that the government was supposed to be doing.
It is very clear that the government had no intention of honouring its promise. The Prime Minister had no intention of honouring that promise. If he had, he would have put it in writing.
It is clear that the Leader of the Liberal Party at the time and now the Prime Minister was simply prepared to say whatever it took to secure votes and then did absolutely nothing in order to put together the kind of proposal in detailed, technical language that would have given effect to that promise. The consequence was that a premier felt that an entire population of a province had been slapped in the face. We share that view; we have the same analysis.
As it happens, the cap that has been proposed in the government's offer to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador will cost in this upcoming year $100 million in forgone revenue to the people of that province. By the year 2007, it will be $600 million.
If the House were to ask what is my source for that information, I would refer members to any one of the political parties in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. They will provide exactly the same analysis. I happen to have received mine from Jack Harris, the Leader of the New Democratic Party in Newfoundland and Labrador.
I have received a lot more time for a three party consensus analysis of the impact of this from the people of Newfoundland and Labrador than I have from the government. The government has not presented any details. It has not even operated with what could be described as a modest amount of good faith. We have simply seen inaction, dragging feet, broken promises, and the unfair treatment of the people of that province, and we should add Nova Scotia as well, as the hon. member did in his question to me.
It is frankly the kind of strategy and behaviour on the part of the government that causes many people to lose faith all together. They really begin to lose faith in the political process when they see fundamental promises broken time and time again: promises on child care, broken for 11 years; promises on stopping the privatization of our health care and then doing absolutely nothing about it; advertising campaigns launched so that people would vote for the Liberals in order to avoid a George Bush agenda, and then we find discussions about implementing missile defence; and breaking all of the promises once again. It is a non-stop list. We could add Kyoto and the protocol to reduce emissions which is another broken promise. The list is so long that I am not going to consume the time of the House of Commons.
It is important that we move toward a vote on this issue and show the people of Newfoundland and Labrador that there are at least some members of the House of Commons, and the New Democratic Party members stand proudly among them, who are ready to honour the commitments that were made during the election because that is a fundamental element of a well-functioning democracy.