Mr. Speaker, I have to admit that I do not know how to say bogeymen in French either.
I would say that it is because of the past. The federal government tends to think that it has to run the show, in many areas.
As I mentioned earlier, I do not think there is a desire, certainly not on the part of the previous speaker, to have the federal government take the lead. When I read the bill, I get the feeling that not too far below the surface is that tendency of the federal government to think that only it can make intelligent rules in Canada.
The bill states:
3. The Minister is responsible for exercising leadership relating to emergency management—
In my opinion, this is not true. I think that this is a complementary role. It may be a leadership role within the federal government, but certainly not in managing emergencies. The reason things worked so well in Quebec is that the Premier of Quebec stepped in.
Then, the bill gives the minister authority over:
4(1)(d) monitoring potential, imminent and actual emergencies and advising other ministers accordingly;
There is still more:
6(2) Each minister shall include in an emergency management plan
This again implies that the minister wants control over all emergency plans. Quite honestly, I do not see how the minister will go about judging our plans.
We will look at the other points together, and I am certain that we will be able to come to an agreement. But from experience, I can say that when it is written in the fine print somewhere in the law, the federal government always ensures that it is able to intervene when jurisdictions overlap. That is my concern. I think this can be corrected, and I am certain that I will likely have the cooperation of the previous speaker.