I'll be very quick.
I know we're at the beginning of a study. I tried to circulate, in advance of our last meeting, a proposal for how we should conduct it. I'll put everyone's mind at ease: I'm not trying to pull any fast ones or table motions on the floor right now, even though the rules would preclude that. I just want to give us an opportunity to have a very short discussion about the next steps in our study.
I'd like to thank each of the critics for taking the time to speak with me over the weekend, or as recently as this afternoon. I had initially envisioned that we would farm out some portions of this bill to different committees purely as a way to expedite matters. Certain members indicated they didn't wish to do that, and I'm happy to oblige if we want to do the entire study at the finance committee.
I've prepared a draft motion and circulated a copy of it to Mr. Fast and Mr. Ste-Marie. Perhaps the clerk can circulate a copy of that motion, if I send it momentarily, to you, Mr. Chair. It is a starting point for future discussions on what the shape of this may look like.
I spoke with Mr. Julian earlier today, and we haven't reached an agreement or anything like that. However, from a technical point of view, we will need to establish our next steps at some stage. Some members have indicated a preference to do this at the steering committee. I'm okay with doing that, and technically speaking, I know you mentioned previously that you sought room for a steering committee meeting.
Given that we're supposed to hear from the officials on Thursday, I'm wondering if the committee would agree to one of two options. I'm happy with either, frankly. We can either adjourn a bit early to allow the steering committee to use the remaining time to develop the plan on how we should proceed, or set some of the meeting time aside for committee business to do the same thing, if that is technically a better option for securing meeting space.
With that, Mr. Chair, I'll have the clerk circulate my proposal, but I'm happy to accommodate feedback. My interest is less in the format of the meetings and more in making sure that we deal with the measures outlined in the BIA in a timely way.