Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for correcting the record with respect to the Manitoba government taking the matter to the supreme court of North Dakota. It seemed to me that was an appropriate course of action and one that we all wish would have succeeded.
I also thank her for her compliments on the work of Premier Gary Doer, who I have kept in close touch with on this issue. We have tried to be respectful of the fact that there is a time and a place for things to be on the floor of Parliament and then there is a time for them not to be. This is often a matter of difficult political judgment when negotiations are ongoing.
I remember when the Conservative government was in power and I remember what happened with respect to the CF-18. That is a different issue all together but a good example. I remember going over to Conservative backbenchers and cabinet ministers and asking them if I should raise the issue on the floor of the House of Commons. They told me not to raise it because everything was going okay. They felt that if I raised it, I might wreck it. They thought I might say something that would harm the negotiations so I did not say anything. Then the government did not get the CF-18 and we were raked over the coals for never saying anything. That is the dilemma of the political process sometimes. I just mention that as an example.
Premier Doer is right to say that it is now up to the federal government. He has said that it is between the President and the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is not the first prime minister to have difficulties with the United States of America over environmental problems.
I was here in the House during the time of the acid rain tensions between Canada and the United States. Each government agreed to appoint a special envoy. Bill Davis was the Canadian special envoy and a man by the name of Drew Lewis was the American special envoy. They were both charged with coming up with a solution. I would suggest to the frontbench of the Liberals here tonight, which at the moment is the President of the Treasury Board, that one option might be to appoint an envoy from either side to come up with a way to deal with this.
What is important is that we come out of this tonight with the unanimous message that the Parliament of Canada is very concerned about what will happen to Canada-U.S. relations if this goes ahead without an IJC reference. What will happen to a major Canadian ecosystem if this goes ahead? We can argue about a lot of other things later, but for now we need to speak with one voice. I hope that we will all go back to our House leaders early tomorrow and tell them that this issue came up on the floor of the House tonight.
The member said that she was a new member. I was not implying there was anything wrong with her bringing this motion forward as a new member. I intended to compliment her for doing this. I was just not happy with the initial tone of the debate, but I think that is changing. I hope we can proceed from here.