Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I would like to react to Mr. Fergus' comment. I do not share his interpretation of the facts at all. Actually, the decision to limit the length of the debates in committee was made before we heard witness after witness tell us that the bill presents huge problems. We should therefore adjust and solve those problems, because our committee is responsible for doing so and for taking the time needed.
Mr. Chair, we also did not know at the time that we would have all those votes that interrupted our work on many occasions during the day and that will interrupt us again today.
We have before us the most mammoth bill in our history and it is causing us problems. We also have amendments and we are going to have to consider them. So, I beg you, do not tell us that the bill is going to be passed as is by 9 o'clock this evening. That, I feel, would be showing a lack of respect for Canadians who demand meticulous work from us, work that guarantees that the bill will go through all the usual stages and achieve the objectives that have been set. Canadians would be disappointed to learn that we are not even going to be studying all the provisions of the bill.
Let me invite you to consider something else, Mr. Chair. In the past, we had a government that did the same thing, the Harper government. Each time the Conservatives tried to rush bills through committee, the courts sent them back to do their homework.
That's my final point. Under the Harper government, we saw these bills consecutively rejected by the courts because the parliamentary scrutiny was not done effectively. You have half a dozen pieces of legislation that are rammed through Parliament, and then the courts say, “Hold on, the parliamentary work was not done; this bill does not stand.”
We risk doing the same thing with this bill. We have had testimony that indicated women will have to return to court to obtain their rights if this bill is not improved, if these flaws are not addressed. Ultimately, if what we end up doing is forcing the courts to come back and say the finance committee did not do its work adequately, I think it would be an embarrassment, and I think it would be something that the finance committee itself would regret.
We have an opportunity to work 24-7, and I'm certainly willing to do that and I think many of my colleagues are as well, so as not to have this current structure that means at 9 p.m. tonight everything in the bill is adopted, regardless of whether it has been properly scrutinized, whether the amendments have been considered, or whether the flaws have been addressed.