Mr. Speaker, I thank the Prime Minister for his remarks on a very important debate, but I am disappointed. In his remarks he said that the real work of reconciliation should be driving a solution here. I agree, but the trouble is that he has been Prime Minister for five years and he has violated the duty to consult indigenous Canadians on two separate occasions, with the cancellation of northern gateway and the Arctic exploration treaty with the United States. Not a single Inuit or indigenous community was consulted on that.
Now the Prime Minister has had five years. He talks about real work, but it has been five years. For four of those years, every member of Parliament in Atlantic Canada was a Liberal MP. There has been five years of inaction.
My question for the Prime Minister is this. When is the real work going to begin? I mentioned to the Prime Minister a month ago, before Parliament reconvened, that tensions were rising. The Liberals ignored it then. The minister from the province ignored it for a year. Therefore, why has there not been substantive mediation between the Mi'kmaq and the commercial fishermen?
At its heart, all Canadians, all fishers in Nova Scotia, indigenous and non-indigenous, want a moderate livelihood and well-being for their family to be focused on here tonight. When is the real work actually going to start?