Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief. I want to pick up on the points made by my colleague from Edmonton—Sherwood Park and by the hon. member for Halifax.
In listening to the belated response from the government, it seems that the Liberal members' being so dismissive of the very comments their own ministers have made shows the absolute arrogance the government is adopting in this particular issue.
I want to remind you, Mr. Speaker, before you make your decision, which of course we are all waiting for, that the trade minister himself basically shrugged off the defeat in the House of the bills that would create a new international trade department separate from the Department of Foreign Affairs by saying that two branches of government will continue to operate independently without Parliament's blessing.
If indeed, as the parliamentary secretary tries to say, this is simply a case of the opposition misunderstanding how the machinery of government works, and I would certainly debate him on that, then why was the minister himself suggesting that he needed the blessing of Parliament? As the member for Halifax and the member for Edmonton—Sherwood Park just said, why did the House go through the charade of having to debate two pieces of legislation if the government did not need them in the first place?