Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
We've expressed our concern about the haste with which we've proceeded, the number of amendments we've made to a private member's bill, and the fact that we didn't have at least one witness, the parole board, who we considered essential. As well, on this side we still have concerns about the impacts from some parts of this bill, in particular the impact of lengthening the interval between parole hearings on rehabilitation processes.
That said, we believe there are important improvements for victims rights in this bill. I just want to mark our concerns that we've stated all through this. We feel that we've gone too rapidly, that we didn't hear all the witnesses we needed, and that we've been making really a large number of amendments to a very short bill. It's very difficult to see, as was just indicated to us by our experts, what we have in front of us. I know that the bill then is reprinted as amended, we'll see it at report stage in the House, and we'll have another chance to see what we've actually done, but the process has been very difficult here. We wish it had been other.
As I emphasized before, we think a government victims bill of rights may come at some day in the future. But a bill in committee is worth two in a government promise, so we will be supporting the bill as amended and sending it forward despite our reservations.