Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think, in their initial purpose, the motion and subamendment.... My biggest challenge is the timeline they're imposing. We're being asked as a committee to hold ourselves to a timeline before we've even had the opportunity to hear from any witnesses. All we have is what some people—stakeholders—are sending in. We know there's no economic study. That point has been raised here as well.
Mr. Chair, I'm always short, but I'll try to be brief in my comments.
Previously, when the House was asked to push through legislation quickly, we had some mistakes—fairly significant mistakes. Things went a bit unnoticed for some time, including the SNC issue that was raised, because it was put into a budget bill and not really combed through as properly as it could have been, since that Parliament was on a tight timeline. We've spent time in the main chamber debating and fixing legislation that came out of the pandemic. A good example is GIS benefits. That mistake was not caught by the committee or by any stakeholders before it was passed. It wasn't until the NDP, to their credit, realized there was a problem after the budget bill passed.
I'm wondering what it's going to be this time. I suspect there will be some issues around the competition law policy. I mentioned earlier that typically what you would see is a consultation, and then a consultation on the proposed amendments, but we're just skipping right through it.
I will quote a law firm that has some experience in competition policy. It says:
Despite the significance of the proposed amendments and the deliberate policy choices they entail, it is notable that these proposals have not been developed through public consultation with stakeholders—a process that has been used before and has been requested again by members of the Canadian competition law bar.
Just last week, representatives from Industry Canada indicated that the competition law bar or the CBA was not consulted on these draft rules.
Now, I am interested in—
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Were you trying to get in?