I won't take long, because I'm going to put a motion forward at the end of it.
Members, I think at some point in time we've got to learn a lesson. The report we have done is a long report, and the report is long because we kept inviting witnesses back in, the same people sometimes, which indicates to them that we don't listen very well or we don't understand. I don't think that's a good indication from this committee.
We've asked organizations and individuals to take time away from their businesses, their farming operations, to come in and sit through the day sometimes while we did this in the midst of when they should have been witnesses. I don't point fingers at anyone; it happened.
I'm saying that we've got a long report. It is a priority.
When I look at the motions that Wayne has in front of us, I don't have an issue with dealing with those motions because some of those are actually in the report. We've just got to get to the report, and that will help us deal with aspects of these motions.
Not all of the witnesses came in front of us asking for money. Actually, many of them asked about what kinds of regulatory changes we could help them with in terms of levelling the playing field so they can be more competitive. I have a motion on that, and I won't deal with it now, but it's basically one of those things. Witnesses sat in front of us and told us to level the field a little bit and help them with regulatory changes.
The disservice to these individuals by not proceeding with what everyone at this table said was a significant and important process, to develop a report so that we could get it done.... These individuals and their organizations took the time to come in and present to us. We at least owe them the opportunity; we at least owe them our responsibility as a committee to deal with it. We can deal with this report in the long term or we can actually sit down and deal with it.
Alex and Malcolm were there. I agree, we can sit down and do it. We're actually going to have to set some politics aside, folks, and just get to it. Quite honestly, I'm not prepared--not because I don't want to deal with the motions; I want to deal with what is the priority, and I think we as a committee have a responsibility to our rate payers across this country and to the organizations that we solicited or who asked to come here.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to put a motion on the floor. That motion is that we would finalize the competitive report before we move ahead on any of the motions, and that you would move, with the steering committee's help, to address that. Honestly, the other part of that, Mr. Chair, will be that if we don't, then I think we should just dispose of it and get rid of it. I think that would be a travesty for the agriculture people and the organizations that took their time, including the young farmers who came in.
I think, folks, we need to sit down, bite the bullet, and do the job that we said we would do when we asked people to come in and they asked us to do it.
I put the motion forward.