Mr. Speaker, I would like to advise the House of some recent developments on the National Constitutional Reform. As Members know, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on a Renewed Canada tabled its report in Parliament on February 28th. It was made public on March 1st. This report was the culmination of many months of public hearings and constitutional conferences that had examined 28 proposals put forward by the federal government in a discussion paper in September 1991. The joint parliamentary committee report contained over 40 recommendations, and the federal government had initially announced that it would attempt to refine these recommendations into a constitutional resolution or some other form of federal response by April 15th.
Under pressure from several provinces, Minister Clark called a meeting on March 12th to discuss a process by which multilateral discussions could lead to a consensus package of reforms that could be considered by Quebec and other provinces. I attended this meeting, and I am pleased to report today that one of the conclusions was that aboriginal and territorial delegates will be included in all public and private meetings on constitutional negotiations over the next few months. This was a significant change of policy for the federal government and for some of the provincial governments.
A second outcome of that meeting was an agreement to conduct an intensive series of officials' and Ministers' meetings over the next 10 weeks in an attempt to work out the details of a final constitutional package that would be acceptable to provinces, territorial and aboriginal organizations as well as to the federal government. The deadline for completion has been set at May 31st. It was felt that a package of reforms had to be available for Quebec to consider in advance of that province's setting its question for an October referendum on sovereignty.
Last Thursday, March 19th, the first officials' meeting was held to organize the work for the next few weeks. Four working groups of officials have been established to examine various issues. The intention is to have these officials identify and clarify issues to assist Ministers and First Ministers in developing the final consensus package. The working groups started work yesterday in Toronto and will carry on meetings over the next few days. As I said, Mr Speaker, the significant part of these working groups is that they include federal, provincial, territorial and aboriginal delegations. At this stage
of the process, officials have not received any mandate to negotiate agreements of any sort. Mr. Speaker, your special committee on constitutional reform will be preparing its interim report on the national reform process over the next few weeks, with the intention of making recommendations to the Assembly on these issues. Thank you.