Thanks, Mr. Chair.
As I said at the beginning, I strongly have to vote against this amendment because it takes away the clear things that I was trying to do in my original motion. It would take the intent away.
I heard my friendly colleague, Ms. O'Connell, say before that, if we want to do it in a meaningful way, then to support her amendment on this and not just have this in a symbolic way. I find that very frustrating because, if I read her amendment, it says to raise the issue of child rearing. That's all it's doing; it's just raising it.
What I'm asking is that this committee make a recommendation that should have been done in the first place. We shouldn't even be here discussing this. It was omitted. Maybe it was a mistake, and that's fine, but something could be done now. I'm making that recommendation and not raising the issue and deferring this for another couple of months, which shows Canadians that we're not really doing our job here as a committee.
I'm just kind of frustrated after listening to the minister today in the House say that the bill could be stronger. He admitted that. I thought it was really good. That's why I'm here today trying to resume this and asking for your support, as we all believe that's what should be done. As Liberals, as Conservatives, and as New Democrats, we know that this is an injustice, not including these people. It's not symbolic. It means we're doing some action, and we're doing the things that are right for Canadians.
Again, I cannot support this, Mr. Chair, because it takes out exactly what I was trying to put forward. All it does is defer it to another period of time, and it just raises the issue, where ours makes a recommendation to the House, to the government, of where we feel the bill could be stronger, as the minister said today.
Then that's their decision. We're not doing anything else. We're not putting additional costs on them. We're not saying anything. We're making a recommendation to him of what we heard and what people would like to see.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.