Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Minister, for appearing this morning.
As you know, I was not in favour of having these meetings until we had the actual legislation in front of us, which I believe is coming. Last night, on my way back to Ottawa, the Honourable John McCallum said to me on a public airplane that we're going to have some fun this week with this. Well, I find it ironic that he would consider these types of discussions as fun, as if this is some sort of game. As we look at what happened in November of the fall of 2005, when they talked about it, mused about it publicly, you'll see what happened is that the markets went up and down, and investors were hurt. I don't think that was appropriate.
One of the issues that was to be discussed was “Why four years?” While you were giving that presentation, all of our Liberal friends were chatting with each other and weren't paying attention. Whether they agree or not, I'm not sure. But I think they should have at least been paying attention.
So my question is to you, as the Minister of Finance. I think it's obvious that the governments before us were given the information, obviously started this information, and have received the studies. But why is it important for the finance minister of this country to act with certainty and decisiveness on this particular item?
If you could explain that to me, I would appreciate that.