Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that the government does these kinds of interventions at the last moment when a member of Parliament has obviously invested a considerable amount of time and energy into this exercise.
However, I would first like to point out, on the merits of what has been stated, that what the parliamentary secretary has been calling a loan directly from the government coffers is not a loan. That is the terminology that is used, but it is actually the government backing a cash deposit receivable. This is not taking money from the general revenue account of government. This is simply stating that this receivable will indeed be a receivable. This is done all the time.
There is no reason why trade harassment cannot be one more category. This would not even require a statutory change beyond the impetus of this in order to effect that change. The minister could do it simply by deciding to do it. The same argument largely applies to the other point on the legal costs, which is that the government is already making these kinds of decisions. It has already allocated $20 million in this area.
This creates a scenario where it would be triggered as opposed to leaving it up to the vagaries of the politics of the day for the government. It is very demonstrative of a disingenuous argument to suggest that this would require a royal recommendation.