Edgar Schmidt said otherwise about the Department of Justice's assessments. He said that the Conservative government often goes ahead with bills that have not received the basic approval of the department. That is why I asked the question. I was hoping we would see the legal opinion or, at the very least, the Department of Justice's assessment.
I would like to quickly address everything that has been said about the subject, especially by the government. The Canada-U.S. agreement is extremely complex and will affect over a million people. I think that saying it was either FATCA or the agreement the government signed is a red herring.
Our committee's job is to study the ramifications and consequences of this agreement. The problem is that we can't do that properly by studying this provision among the hundreds of others in this omnibus bill.
My colleague asked if this agreement could be removed from the bill so that we could study it properly and thoroughly. We need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt whether it is constitutional. We have to know and understand the impact that this agreement could have on the one million Canadians who are also American citizens and who will be affected by this provision.
I will ask my question again. Given all of this and the fact that, as the opposition, we do not have the Department of Justice's legal opinion, would it be possible for us to do our work as a committee and study this agreement properly by taking it out of the bill?