Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll suggest something I think might move us along, which would hopefully be somewhat refreshing.
Every party in this place has identified this committee and this process as most significant. I've heard from all parties now a willingness to do the heavy lifting, to work hard to see as many committee meetings in a week as are necessary. One of the ways we've suggested--and I believe members of the committee all have a proposed workplan that we put forward--was to take six specific topics or themes that we can study. To answer Mr. Manning's concern, I think we can nail down a process that works for this committee.
These are the central themes we've seen come again and again through all the testimony we've heard before. It's effective; it's transparent. It's for the Canadian people to see and judge us by, but we must act as if they were at our very heels on this legislation. We cannot simply sit back and have large philosophical debates about the possibility or the need to act. The need to act is in front of us. The will to act must come from each of us sitting in the chairs around this table.
We have the capacity to call these witnesses and to do a thorough and complete study, and if opposition members and government members have not come forward with prepared amendments or considered amendments, then I simply must beg what we've been doing for the last eight weeks.
Committee members are here to do a job and to get the right job done. Each party has considered this particular issue for a number of years. Clearly our work is in front of us and our opportunity is now. To take that opportunity rather than delay and dither is the only choice available to us.
The proposed work plan, we believe, is a sensible one. It puts out six specific topics and meetings with witnesses who will cover the range of issues dealt with by Bill C-30, including some other options that don't even exist in Bill C-30 right now. It will rewrite this bill to our satisfaction and present it back to the House in a timely fashion.
We believe it's the responsible thing to do.