I will be moving this as a motion, because certainly Mr. Godfrey has added a couple of things, or so he believes, to this work plan in terms of wanting to hear about equivalency, and there is space even within this work plan to allow for that, so certainly I would expect his support.
Also, the ENGOs, the non-governmental organizations he referred to, sent us all a letter on the 22nd. If I may, I will quote just one small piece from it, Chair:
We believe that all parties understand the need for urgent action on climate and clean air, so the committee should have no need for lengthy debates. A time period on the order of four weeks should be enough to debate the wording of any amendments and to consider C-30 clause by clause.
In an effort to respond to those same groups that Mr. Godfrey and Mr. McGuinty have referred to, we have put forward what we thought was a reasonable work plan. A work plan to get work done, not a series of navel-gazing exercises trying to decipher what possibly the Conservatives were thinking of when they drew up Bill C-30. I'm not interested.
If there is fear about taking this bull by the horns and making decisions about the type of economy and environment we want, then allow opposition members to express those fears. But if there is courage to act upon this and bring forward amendments they have worked on for years, both in government and now in opposition, allow them to bring those amendments forward.
I will move this motion of a work plan, which we see as reasonable, in response to the very environmental groups that Mr. Godfrey and Mr. McGuinty have called upon for support, and I suggest that their concerns can be brought into this. If extra meetings are required within this four-week period as described by the environmental groups, then so be it. We'll stay the extra time. We haven't got a problem with that. But the urgency of this is paramount. Stretching it out some months and months beyond is the equivalent of doing nothing and acting in an irresponsible way.
So I move a motion to accept the proposed work plan and the witnesses that the committee members have been sent.