Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In quick summary; shortly after the new government came into office in Ottawa, I asked the new Minister of Justice, Allan Rock, a very short question: would he take seriously a proposal from us to resume discussions about the devolution of prosecutions, with a commitment to complete it, if he had clear terms and conditions that he wanted met to do so. He responded yes, he would seriously enter into such a process.

I then directed officials to begin the discussion. At this time, it's still unclear to me if the Minister is entering into discussions with the intended purpose of concluding devolution, provided his terms and conditions are met. Previous governments have realized governments had entered into discussions without a clear commitment to conclude the process. As I understand it, the last government, at the last moment, decided -- without any substantial decisions -- to turn down the suggestion after months of discussion.

So the first question we're asking the federal government to answer is being done through appointment of an official: Stien Lal a former deputy minister of Justice to this government. Mr. Stien Lal has taken the question of deciding how this process should be conducted by both governments and will be making recommendations to the federal Minister of Justice in the next month or so. We have argued that the first question that should be answered is should the federal government enter into these discussions with the intended purpose of concluding the negotiations or the discussions clearly, if their terms and conditions are met. That first question should be answered within the next month or so.

Again, I don't know if I'm making myself clear, but I'm trying to avoid a situation where I negotiate in good faith for months with the government only to be told at the end that even if we meet all their conditions, they will still not honour the intent of the negotiations. So I'm trying to get the federal government to commit, as we are, that if they have their terms and conditions met and if we have our terms and conditions met, we should conclude the negotiations. That first question is being addressed up front. Hopefully, we should have a response by the federal government in the next couple of months and, hopefully, we will have some definitive response to give to Members by June. Thank you.