Mr. Speaker, I do not know whether it will surprise the secretary of state to hear this. I am sure many others will not be surprised to know that the Chamber of Commerce has not approached me, and I am not insulted by that. It is not surprising it has not done so.
There are various arguments in favour of signing on at this time. It is perhaps regrettable because if it had, it would have addressed some of the questions I raised, which I hope the secretary of state will choose to address in her wrap-up on the debate of Bill C-53 at second reading.
I have a great many corporations in my community, for which I have a good deal of regard and respect in terms of how they conduct themselves in a socially responsible way. In fact, it was thrilling for me that the Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Halifax Partnership jointly sponsored a major event on corporate social responsibility. One of the outstanding commentators on this topic came to address the subject, Stephen Lewis. There was a huge turn-out from the corporate community to address the questions of corporate social responsibility, and it made me feel very good about my community.
I do not want to misrepresent that speech and I would not even try to begin to articulate the thrust of the case for corporate social responsibility having been put to the business community in Halifax by Stephen Lewis, but it was well received.
Issues of transparency, accessibility and accountability in such disputed matters would rank very high with responsible corporations that take seriously the need to take responsibility for their actions and to ensure that people understand what kinds of disputes have occurred and then what kinds of decisions have come out of them.
With those comments, I look forward to the secretary of state addressing the question of why now. Other that having cited the Chamber of Commerce. I did not hear her speak about what other kinds of representations from other citizens or corporations were made to the government that brought it to the decision to bring this forward as legislation at this time. I look forward to hearing her comments on that.