Mr. Speaker, I certainly did cover in my speech the aspect of where the duty to consult rests. It clearly rests with the government in terms of initiating constitutional change and pieces of legislation that would have that kind of impact.
However, what I also indicated in my speech was the fact that we could use this as a starting point to talk about instituting real accountability in the Senate. Again, as the member for Timmins—James Bay and others have suggested, this is an opportunity to put a real ethics package in place in the Senate. It is an opportunity to stop the kind of partisan spending that happens in the Senate, where there is party fundraising and that kind of activity. It is an opportunity to stop taxpayer-funded travel on measures that are not related to a legislative agenda.
I agree that constitutional change is going to take time and that it is going to require working very closely with the provinces, but in the meantime, we cannot continue to let this kind of unaccountable spending continue to happen. It is just the wrong use of taxpayers' dollars.