Mr. Speaker, from the time that we lifted the appeal on this to the time it was tabled in the bill, I had been under the understanding that Mr. Descheneaux and the family had been consulted. When I heard that testimony in the Senate, I was appalled and called Mr. Descheneaux.
These are the learning moments. As a minister, and a department, “meaningful consultation” means that we have to deal with the people who are impacted by this decision. At that time, it became clear to me what the impact was if we did not get on with this. Kids will not be able to go to post-secondary school, even though they have the rights that the court has awarded, if we are not able to get this through the parliamentary process. I think that these two truncated consultations are not good enough to deal with the other issues.
However, I thank the member for raising this, because it really did point out to me and my department that we need to do better. We believe that since November we have taken this very seriously.