In making the three amendments I suggested, I tried to keep in mind what appeared at least to be the legislative calendar, or what appeared to be the calendar through which this was going to be considered and then dealt with. I made no attempt whatsoever to go into a detailed clause-by-clause imagination of how a revised bill might look in trying to realize whatever the government's intentions were. I made no attempt to do that. I just focused on the things that I thought would be most useful in the context we had.
It seems to me that adding some set of criteria--as I said, the principles we had may not be the ones that are wanted; there may be others that may be more useful--that would give both the people subject to the law--because it's a law now, it's not just a guideline--and Canadians in general some idea of what the objective was. Certainly we'd be glad to work with anybody who wishes to work those out. I offer the possibility, but that's a question of what the committee wants and wishes to do. I thought that would be helpful.
On a more minor scale, the question of discretion, it seems to me, is very helpful. It needs to be limited; it can't be too wide. For example, in the current situation the government changes and there's a huge tidal wave of paper that comes to the office, and it is probably impossible to deal with in the time limits that are provided. So some discretion to let that move a little so you can deal with the odd special occasion seems to me to be a good idea.
The revision of the review, I think, would be a natural consequence of the fact you raised earlier. There hasn't been a lot of time in some ways to consider this as carefully as might otherwise have been the case, but perfection can get in the way of the goods, so to speak, to use an English expression. I think a serious attempt at review of the experience once a number of years has passed--it could be three or four or five--would be a useful idea.
Another useful idea the committee may wish to consider as it looks at the law in detail is what the implementation calendar is like. There are some things that, of course, could be implemented right away, but very careful thought should be given to which of the sections may require more work--not on the section itself, but more work to get implemented. An example is anything that requires a regulation such as fines. It's a complex process, so the development of those can't be done in any instant way. Some thought about the implementation calendar should be given, and some thought has already been given, I should say, but I think more thought would be very helpful.