The members will know, and if they don't know they can look at the minutes, that I have never been in favour of rushing this bill through. I have said it is our fiduciary responsibility to examine legislation. I did not vote for that motion, although I allowed it to pass because it was the will of the committee. I did not vote for the motion that put the timetable on this, because I think it's an abdication of responsibility of the committee to say we'll pass something within a very short period of time, no matter what we find.
We have found some troubling information. We've seen this from the very beginning. The questions that were given to the minister were vague. She didn't seem to know what actuary we were talking about. Then we forced some information out of Mr. Vermaeten and Mr. Beauséjour. It is troubling, but that's what happens when you rush legislation through. That's the problem, and we are where perhaps some of us thought we might be.
Having said that, it's a very difficult thing to be here, trying to be a responsible opposition, the day before we as a committee have voted to report this back to the House and hearing this kind of information. Having amendments put forward by Mr. Lessard that might correct that situation was anticipated before. What do we do as a responsible opposition? It's a tough question, Mr. Chair. It's five past five on Thursday. Most members of Parliament are on planes or they're back home, and we are trying to get this legislation through. It produces a very difficult situation.
What I am asking the parliamentary secretary is this. If we are not going to make material changes to this bill, what is the government prepared to do? Are they prepared, for example, to ask the Auditor General to have a full look at this bill and give us her opinion as to whether this rate setting has been appropriate? Will she examine the bill so that we have an independent set of eyes look at the financing of the bill, the impacts on the EI fund, and whether the rates are set correctly across the board, particularly in the province of Quebec?
If the parliamentary secretary can commit to me that he's prepared to have that done, that would go a long way in alleviating the concern that I personally have as a member of Parliament who is trying to do his job and do the due diligence in committee that needs to be done and also recognize that we made a commitment as a committee, even though I wasn't keen on it when we did it.