Mr. Speaker, the member for Markham—Unionville is another member of the finance committee who usually has quite a bit to contribute. We appreciate his support on committee for a lot of the good initiatives that have gone forward.
The member talked about dollars in the billions, less than a billion of course. Let me refer to a study by John Coffee of Columbia University. His study shows that Canada, in not moving forward with this, could suffer a loss of $10 billion in economic benefits. That is not chump change. That is big money. That is the lost investment into this country.
The hon. member asked me why we would spend money consulting with provinces and Canadians when it is a shared jurisdiction. This government does not move forward without consulting our partners. It is a voluntary system. The task force talked to all of the relevant people involved in this, the people who have been impacted, and came back with the suggestion that we move forward but we move forward by asking for the Supreme Court to rule.