Hon. Renée Dupuis: Yes.

Thank you for raising these two points, Senator Patterson. With respect to Motion No. 19, in recent years, months and weeks, the federal government’s position, which it outlined to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs yesterday, has been that it would rather wait until a province takes the initiative and presents a constitutional resolution to study a bilateral federal-provincial amendment to the Constitution, which would be the case with your motion.

I don’t know what your thoughts are on this position. I’m not saying that I’m against the motion, but if the Senate were to adopt the motion you are presenting, how would we move forward, given the federal government’s position?

[English]

Senator Patterson: Thank you for that intriguing question, Senator Dupuis. Maybe the best way we could proceed with this would be to give weight to the rightness of remedying this antiquated and elitist provision by endorsing it in the Senate. Then I could go to the Province of Quebec hopefully with support and advice from my esteemed colleagues from the Province of Quebec and see if, with the imprimatur of the Senate, the Government of Quebec would consider supporting such a change. Maybe that would be the logical way of dealing with the problem that you have described, which would give Quebec the opportunity to then signal its support.

I would still like to see the motion and the bill examined thoughtfully here, and hopefully approved, and then I could take that step with the support of senators from Quebec to then encourage the Province of Quebec to support such modernization and overdue reform. Thank you.

[Translation]

Senator Dupuis: Thank you.

[English]