There we go.
What we have seen is a failure on the part of the government to keep that commitment of two years ago. The NDP provided clear direction. Every single member of the House of Commons said yes, that it was the direction in which the country should go. The government needed to take this direction from the House of Commons, and for two years nothing has been done.
Two months ago the application was pending. We knew that. Did the government snap to attention and start working? No. No work has been done. Now we are only a few days away from a decision that we would expect to be enlightened and emboldened by full public consultation, yet we have not seen anything.
This is the fundamental problem. We have the public on one hand saying that they are learning more and more about this takeover and that they are concerned about it. We also have chief executives and those in the boardroom saying that they are looking at this and are becoming more and more concerned. We even have Conservatives raising this issue, but we have seen no leadership at all from the government.
If today the Conservatives vote against this motion, it would be a rejection and repudiation of a solemn commitment made to the Canadian public two years ago when they voted for that motion by Jack Layton. It would be a repudiation of what is clearly the public's desire to be consulted about this takeover and the whole issue of takeovers in the energy sector generally, particularly by state-owned companies.
It would also be a clear repudiation of a commitment made by every Conservative MP to clarify the net benefit test and to engage public confidence in that test, which has clearly eroded because there has been no definition of net benefit, and also to set in place a level playing field for investors so they would understand the criteria they have to meet when applying for a takeover.
Rejection of this motion today would be a repudiation of all of that. I ask Conservative members to vote for it. I hope they will support this motion.