Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her speech, but I am completely surprised to hear that the government would impose time allocation on a bill that, as my colleague said, is so important.
This is an unusual situation because today, and over the past few days, Quebec has been saying that it needs more time to implement the bill. Right now, the bill is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2018. Quebec is saying that it is not ready to implement the bill that quickly and that it cannot meet the current deadline set by the federal government. The province has also said that it does not feel reassured by the lack of consultation throughout the process to date. The government makes a change to the Criminal Code, and then it washes its hands of the situation, leaving the provinces to deal with all the problems.
Can the minister respond to the Government of Quebec, which is asking for more time today?
Can she explain why she is trying to ram this bill through when the provinces are asking for more time to study it before implementing it?