Mr. Speaker, in 1997, on the issue of parental leave, the then Minister of Human Resources Development, who is now the Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote to Pauline Marois, saying “We have also decided to completely free up the required field of contributions in 1998”. This means that Ottawa was agreeing to transfer the entire amount requested by Quebec for the first year.
Since the only point of issue at present was not a problem before, how can the Prime Minister explain that this sudden impasse?