Thank you.
No, I do have some problems. First of all, I have problems with the context in which the amendment was made, around Mr. Brison's reference to last year. Those numbers were given. He just wouldn't accept them. He wouldn't accept the fact that those were the actual numbers, and he kept driving in further and further trying to get different numbers that didn't exist.
So again, I'm not sure where he's going with that, but that's just pure politics. The reality is, too, when it comes to government bills--the opposition members do know this, or if they don't, I'll tell them--they have the ability on government bills to ask the government for the costing. They have that ability right now, whereas they don't on private members' bills. With most government bills, the costing is already figured into it. So you'll see the costing on a government bill when it's introduced in the House, and if it's not there, then you can request that the government provide a costing or the department provide a costing on a government bill.
So you do have that process in place right now. Unfortunately, when it comes to private members' bills, you have no ability to do that, and that's why it would be important to have the Parliamentary Budget Officer do that work for you. Thus, your amendment is not really necessary, Mr. Brison, because you already have that ability through the use of government resources that are available to you right now. So I don't think that amendment is necessary at this point in time.