Mr. Speaker, it is with some surprise I heard the parliamentary secretary talk about consultation within the bill. Very clearly the amendment continues that process of centralizing power within the minister and the ministry, rather than providing for the broad base consultation the NDP has been calling for, consultation with the municipalities that are impacted and also with the provinces that are impacted.
That was our concern with this bill from the very beginning. We raised it in the House at the introduction of this bill. We said that there was a flaw. Even though we supported in principle the aspects and the direction of the bill, there was a key flaw, and that was in the area of consultation with the communities that are impacted. The NDP strove at the committee level to bring in those kinds of amendments so that there was an obligatory process of consultation, not decided on by the government or the minister deciding when to consult and when not to consult, but a process of consultation with the communities that are impacted.
We know how strongly our cities are impacted by international bridges and tunnels and changes that could be brought by the federal government, so we moved to bring forward a process of consultation that would be obligatory. We wanted to make sure there would be consultation with the communities that would be impacted by this bill, whether it was Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie or any other community in Ontario, Quebec or New Brunswick. We brought that forward and the government has refused that consultation.
My question is simple. Why refuse consultation with the communities that are impacted? Why could they not have some say in what happens?