Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly appreciate Ms. O'Connell's intervention in regard to the Canada Pension Plan amendment that she's presented today. Again, I think it's important for members to note that it was dropped in only one of the two official languages, in this case being English, and not in French. I certainly hope that the government would make considerable efforts in the future to show respect for this parliamentary committee when it makes a motion and then submits it in only one language.
Government has considerable resources, as you know, Mr. Chair, being a former minister of the crown. Departments have budgets and they have parliamentary committees. I think perhaps members aren't aware that those resources are available to government ministers. Obviously, this particular motion is in touch, Mr. Chair, with what we heard from Minister Brison today, as he obviously made an announcement on this. For there not to be some sort of coordination here, where they could submit this particular motion that I'm speaking to right now, Mr. Chair, without submitting it in both English and French, I think is a little rich.
Getting back to the comments that Ms. O'Connell made, again, the substance of the motion here completely changes what Mr. Duvall originally moved. While I've made the point to you, Mr. Chair, that I don't agree that this should have been found in order, I'd also like to point out that when the member made the motion, it's unfortunate that she decided to take it that our opposition to this government's bill is somehow related to hating pension security for seniors. That's the furthest thing from the truth. In regard to the motion itself, I think we need to be very focused. We need to talk about exactly what is here.
I made reference earlier that the NDP put forward a different motion, and that I don't think it would cause any issue at all for the government just to simply vote. Actually, I'm going to give the opportunity to the government members right now. Perhaps, having heard my compelling argument, they might want to retract this motion, and then we can go to the point of perhaps finding a friendly amendment, or perhaps they will just simply vote against Mr. Duvall's original motion and submit one of their own without having to basically procedurally pull the carpet out from under the NDP. I would hope that Mr. Duvall would make these points and, again, perhaps have some conversation with the government side. There could be a friendly amendment that could come out of this, or maybe not.
I'm not sure, Mr. Chair, but the important thing here is that while the Conservatives have said that we don't support the current legislation, that doesn't mean we're against the Canada Pension Plan. It means we're just against the current approach. Again, the bill codified that. We were very productive yesterday, I believe, in committee before the member abruptly called for an end to debate, and now we know why. It is because she wanted to bring forward this motion today.
Again, getting back to that, on this particular motion, the fact is that even though the Conservatives didn't support the NDP's amendments, or wouldn't—the ones that you called out of order—we want to see a very good and healthy process, which includes good and healthy debate here at this table.
Both Mr. McCauley and Mr. Aboultaif have raised some legitimate concerns. They're not regular members of this committee, but I think they've raised a number of concerns that are within the motion as it stands. Therefore, I would like to hear back from Ms. O'Connell, if she is willing to retract her motion. Perhaps there could be a friendly amendment that could be found with Mr. Duvall. I would look to government members here to see if they're willing to do that. I think that would be an important step of reaching out.
Obviously, they agree with the intent of what the NDP is proposing or else they wouldn't be making statements in the House about this and then presenting a motion, Mr. Chair, which I'm speaking directly to, at this time, in this place.
Maybe Dr. Duvall has some further comments on this, I can't say, but—