Mr. Speaker, I am a little astounded hearing the comments of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Clearly, he does not know what is happening with this bill and he has not been present in committee.
One of the big problems with this bill, 57 pages and counting, is what the Conservative majority in committee did. It circumscribed all of the expert witnesses to two meetings. That is two meetings of two hours each. In the most important single meeting that was held on this question of liability insurance, the four principal witnesses who testified, a large railroad, a short-haul railroad, the number one insurance company in the railway insurance business and the Teamsters union, all said there is a series of unintended consequences in the bill, a series of shortfalls, misgivings and changes in the statute that are going to lead to serious litigation. No legal opinions were rendered.
What we really have is a situation where the government is rushing this legislation through pursuant to the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, but, more importantly, with the deadline of the election in the fall very much in its window.
Maybe my colleague from the NDP can comment and try to help us divine why it is the government, instead of doing its homework with proper stakeholder outreach and negotiation to improve this bill, is so incredibly pigheaded about rushing this through in a form that is not complete.