Mr. Chair, the language was circulated to all of the relevant individuals immediately upon the government member moving the motion. We can end up playing politics with this all night. It's actually the government's legislative agenda that's being put at risk.
By the way, the Minister of Finance has requested that we begin the review of the proceeds of crime and money laundering act, which is statutorily obligated to occur before the end of this calendar year. That's one meeting. We only have six meetings left. We're supposed to do Bill C-56 and the fall economic statement.
I'm a bit puzzled why the government has decided to move this motion now and not accept any friendly amendments that have been recommended until now.
By the way, we're also supposed to hear from the Minister of Finance. Now, I think the minister has given us a date—December 7. I assume it will be a combination of Bill C-56, the fall economic statement, plus inflation and housing. The minister only likes to show up to committee when there's legislation to pass. There's either that theory, which is reasonable, or the other theory, which is that the Prime Minister's Office doesn't allow her to come, because she's actually too good at committee and she overshines the Prime Minister.
We went through this last spring. To remind people, it's actually the Prime Minister's Office that doesn't want the Minister of Finance here, because she's actually doing a better job than the Prime Minister on some things. We'll only get her for an hour, and she might say that she's going to be very generous and give us an extra 20 minutes. The reason why this committee's dysfunctional is because the Minister of Finance actually hasn't agreed to any invitation to this committee outside appearances that she decides to make to pass legislation.
If we want reasons for which Conservatives are making a point about this motion, then I'll sum them up in a few points. The first is that we have an opportunity as a committee to actually have a consensus and tell Albertans that we, as an entire committee, feel that the Canada pension plan is important. The second is that we are going to harm ourselves in our ability to pass legislation through the committee. I can't believe I'm making recommendations to the government about how they can pass legislation quicker through the committee. This is what's going to end up happening.
The government's decided to move a politically motivated motion to distract from its failing results in the polls. They think that Premier Danielle Smith is better fodder for the Prime Minister than the leader of the official opposition. It's unfortunate that we can't get a consensus on the committee to send a message to the Alberta government and Albertans about the importance of the CPP.
I will take Mr. Blaikie's recommendations and intervention to heart and reflect upon whether as a matter of principle I'll continue to hold up the passage of a politically motivated motion, or whether there may be an opportunity just to abstain. At this juncture, it defies logic why we're here arguing about a politically motivated motion, when there's so much work the committee needs to do. We could pass it pretty quickly otherwise. If the government members are signalling that they're open to a friendly amendment, I think we could probably wrap it up pretty quickly. That's not the message that we've been given.
We only have six meetings left. We're going to take one, I believe, for a ministerial appearance.
We're supposed to take one for a statutory review of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. By the way, if we don't do that, the government is going to get a bad mark from the Financial Action Task Force, which is reviewing Canada's approach to money laundering. I don't really think we want a black X; I don't think that the government wants a black X.
It seems to me that the government doesn't have a ton of leverage to decide to put this politically motivated motion through the committee. I guess they should have thought about that before they decided to bring the motion.
In addition, the motion doesn't recognize that, by design, the CPP has with it withdrawal criteria for provinces if they decide they want to set up their own plan. I don't think that's a great idea, but we could hear from the Bloc Québécois about the QPP. It has actually functioned fairly well, I think, for Quebeckers.
It's within each provincial government's right to ask whether it's getting value for money for its own taxpayers and its residents in the CPP. There is a mechanism by which a province can exercise that ability and have a discussion.
I don't actually believe that the methodology is on such sound footing as to provide the result in terms of the assets that would be given to Alberta should it withdraw. But the truth is, that's for Albertans to think about and discuss internally. We could send them a message, as a committee, that is unanimous, or we can let a politically motivated motion pass the committee and not get much traction or attention because it's politically motivated.
Call me an idealist. I just happen to think there's an opportunity to do something here where we're all on the same page. I recognize that it may not be where everybody is at the moment, but I still hold out hope.
I suppose if Mr. Blaikie's intervention is the signal that we can't get there, then I'll certainly have to reflect on the path forward. But I do think it would be something if the committee actually said that we all support the CPP.
Whatever member wants to move concurrence in the House and talk until their heart's content about the political decisions of a particular premier in order to score local political points at home, that's up to that member. I just don't think the committee is a perfect place to single out a provincial premier.
I stand to be corrected by the historians on what previous committees have done in this respect, but I'll remind members that just as the winds of change may sweep through Wellington Street and Langevin Block—yes, that's right, I still call it "Langevin Block"—the winds of change can sweep through provincial legislative buildings, as it has in Manitoba. We now have an NDP government in Manitoba. We have an NDP government in British Columbia.
I don't really want to create a precedent for the future where committees will single out various premiers, when a particular party is failing in the polls, in order to score political points to distract from a narrative.
We have an opportunity to send a message as a committee. If we're now being told that no one wants to take that opportunity, we're prepared to talk it out.
The government is just wasting its own time at this point. I hope it's clear—we're going to burn through this meeting, and we're going to burn through Thursday's meeting. We won't be getting any legislation passed here. It will require a direction from the House. We will shortchange stakeholders who have serious concerns about the fall economic statement. As we understand, there will be some tax measures put in that legislation that deserve to be scrutinized. There are lots of stakeholder concerns about Bill C-56, which we're not going to spend a lot of time on anyway.
Frankly, maybe we could make a deal and maybe the motion could be passed. If no one wants to take the nice approach and pass a unanimous motion, but their government is intent on having the political fight, maybe we could make a deal where the Minister of Finance would actually show up at the committee. I could be persuaded to abstain on a vote on the CPP if the Minister of Finance is going to actually appear on any one of the number of studies we have open, other than just showing up, as is the tradition, to pass legislation through committee.
Mr. Chair, I hope I've given my colleagues something to think about. If they are open to hearing, formally, that amendment, to reduce the political tension and get a nice moment where we all lock arms and send a message to the great people of Alberta about the Canada pension plan, I'd be open to moving that at the appropriate time.
However, Mr. Chair, as I say, call me an idealist, but I think we're going to miss a sincere opportunity to do some nation building and unifying for once, and instead continue down the path of sowing the seeds of division.
With that, Mr. Chair, I'll cede the floor.