Thank you, Madam Chair.
First and foremost, to the committee members, particularly the opposition, I want to profusely apologize for the very late submission of the proposed amendments. I recognize that both parties opposite have been submitting these documents in a very timely manner, and we appreciate that. Regrettably, due to circumstances beyond our control and beyond the control of the minister, we were unable to provide these up until now. In fact, we take responsibility for this. However, we believe the nature of the amendments that are proposed is such that they shouldn't necessarily alter the bill significantly, and they're fairly straightforward and not ambiguous. I do want to ask the committee's indulgence on this.
I know this committee has worked very well, and we certainly appreciate the enormous co-operation we received, both from the NDP and the Conservative Party, with respect to this bill. I do, however, just want to reiterate the importance of this and the fact that we do need to move forward.
Once again, I apologize. We are open to discussion of the amendments we've put forward.