Definitely.
I think the government members should come clean and tell the Canadians who are watching this committee today whether they've been instructed to deliberately filibuster this bill. I think they should stop betraying their responsibilities here. If they intend to filibuster this bill for weeks on end, Mr. Chair, then why don't they just have the courage to tell Canadians the truth? Why are they wasting our time and taxpayers' money, and why are they acting as if they had a majority government when they don't?
If you want me to go to the merits of the two tests Mr. Warawa has just put to this committee--the first being that there's no costing--I have asked this government and these members to table the economic modelling that they used for their own plan, the government's plan. I've asked for the econometric modelling. Not a single piece of analysis has been put to this committee that we can apply to this bill. It is a facade. It's a ruse, Mr. Chair.
Secondly, with respect to this question of constitutional aspects, why didn't the government put forward a single constitutional expert to deal with this issue earlier? Where are their constitutional amendments? It is so transparent as to be laughable.
I think the government members should have the courage to tell Canadians what they're up to. If they're trying to block this bill from arriving back at the House of Commons, if they're trying to block this committee from doing its job, then just say so. Stop wasting my time. Stop wasting my constituents' time. Tell us the truth, and if that's the case, let's move on to other business. If that's exactly what's at play here--well, come on, we're not children--we need to know. If you have amendments, put them forward. If you don't, then get to the merits of the bill. Get to the amendments we want to deal with. Let's get down to business and do some work. If somebody else is calling the shots--and I feel for my colleagues if a minister's office is telling you what to do--then you should say so.
As far as I'm concerned, you're individual members of Parliament, and if you want to deal with business and get on with something positive for the country, we're here.
That's my only reaction, Mr. Chair. We're all waiting here to get down to business. All of us here are waiting to get down to the amendments. We have all the text ready to go. We've pre-negotiated much of it. These members of the government agreed to the work plan right here that we signed off on just two weeks ago, saying we would dispose of this bill expeditiously and responsibly. But if you're going to do this, just tell us the truth so we can get on to other business. Then you can take it to the Canadian people and tell the Canadian people why you're doing this, and we will govern ourselves accordingly. But stop wasting our time.