I should obviously give the same concerns of my colleagues on this side.
We'll basically be also providing the minister with his own comments from the committee transcript, his own viewpoints back to him. Obviously he agrees with his own proposals, I would assume; otherwise, he wouldn't have made them in the dead of summer to surprise everybody.
Mr. Chair, I see that you sort of agree to that point.
I have very serious concerns about just the process. Six hours is really insufficient for this type of review or study, a study with no recommendations, which we're supposed to go through in such a rushed way, and not to go over the witness issue again.
The committees I've been on don't do it quite this way. We don't rush a study, especially on an issue that is taking up a significant amount of the public interest. I have Okotoks dental.... One of the dentists there has told me that they have concerns. He wrote me a letter. I have it with me. I have clippings of just today's emails to me.
We know there's a lot of interest from people, and it shouldn't just be associations and groups who represent others. We should be talking to actual business owners, who can bring their spreadsheets and show the type of damage that this might do to their individual businesses.
It will not be possible to rush someone like that at the last minute, giving them a four-day opening next week when they could speak to the committee and present their own balance sheets, their own retirement plans...to demonstrate a physical example of a bakery, Canadian Dent in my riding, or whoever else that may be.
It is not just about associations speaking at a 30,000-foot level, but down to the actual person, the mother running her store, the siblings who come together to form a business. That type of example will not be possible, because small business owners can't just leave their business at the last minute.