Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This amendment comes with great fanfare, so I want to be the one to speak to it. I apologize to all the other amendments that were made by other committee members previous to this, but this really is the pinnacle amendment that I know we're all looking forward to.
Perhaps you were stopped at a grocery store this weekend by people saying, “What about CPC-17?” I apologize on behalf of all the people who pulled you aside.
This amendment is rather simple in nature. Basically, we look at the advisory body, and it has 15 members, but they're all appointed by the Minister of Environment. Now think about if you're the Minister of Environment. You're sitting back, and you've gotten through maybe member five. Maybe you've really pushed yourself and gotten to member six. Then you think, “I have to go and do this nine more times and figure out nine more members to put on this advisory body.” Why not ease Minister Wilkinson's workload? Why not share the membership load with other ministers, perhaps Minister Freeland, Minister Champagne...? What Minister Wilkinson would appreciate this committee doing and saying is, “Go and spend that extra time with your kids. Spend the time with your wife. Go out on a boat. You live in Vancouver for crying out loud. Enjoy the time, Minister, and let's give that extra workload to these other three departments.”
How we've worded it.... We've given three positions for the Minister of Finance to submit, three positions for the Minister of Industry and then three positions for the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations to submit . This still leaves Minister Wilkinson with his six members that he'll likely be able to find, but it also frees him up to do those extracurricular activities with his family. Again, I think he would send us all personal thank-you notes if we allowed him to do something like that.
If you will also recall, Mr. Chair, this was recommended by our friends at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and CAPP, as well, to make sure it's a well-rounded and well-balanced committee.
With that, I turn it to my esteemed committee members to hopefully, again, lighten the load of Minister Wilkinson. He already has to go through the entire bill here after this. Give him these nine members for someone else to pick at the end of the day.
With that, I'll turn it back to you, Mr. Chair.