Witnesses have come forward, and I mean, the canola growers themselves. I think they mentioned the 20 million tonnes of product they're doing and the amount of money they're going through. I mean it's a reality. It's the reality of the numbers that changed in our industry.
I know the member says, yeah, well, we can change this on the fly. Well, it won't be changed on the fly. Do you know why? There's nobody who can deny that they didn't hear this from witnesses. It's a loan and it helps farmers get through the whole year.
The statements made by the government are just not washing here. I think it's blatantly saying they just don't want the opposition to have any say in this bill. It's the same as previously in the last bill we did on the rail issue and that's where they're at.
I'm not totally shocked. I talked to the NDP beforehand and I said let's give them a shot. They alluded to me that these guys were not interested in giving us any amendments.
I'm pretty disappointed that's the way you guys are going to roll. It's not the intent that the minister had when he came forward. He was wasting our time by telling us that we can come with amendments. We've put a lot of work in these amendments and you guys shot them all down.
So, this one here is a no-brainer, but I mean the government has the majority at this committee and they can continue on and do what they did, but we spent a lot of time.
Chair, I've got to commend you for the job you did, because we're one of the only committees that got up and running when we came back in September. We all did a lot of work. We had witnesses come right from across this country. I was proud that our committee got up and running when others didn't. I was proud of all the people who came forward. I think that to not change this amendment is just a kind of a slap in the face not only to the opposition members, but also to a lot of the people who came forward with these recommendations.
It's in their purview. It's affordable. It's the right thing to do. I think it's just a shot at the opposition to say, opposition, you have nothing to bring forward in legislation in this country. There you have it right there and it's evident right now and I can see where the government's going with this.