Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
For the folks at home—of course in the House of Commons I can't do this, but in committee I am more than within my rights to do this—there are no Liberals other than the chair in this room right now. We, as Conservatives, stand ready to negotiate, but it's impossible to negotiate with someone who won't even get in the same room with you.
This is an embarrassment for democracy. Really, shame on you. Shame on you for not coming into the room with us.
We stand here ready to negotiate. We're ready to talk about the amendments. We're even willing to perhaps go forward with a prestudy, but we need a partner. We need someone who is willing to talk to us and who's willing to be in the same room as us.
When we look at this, it appears to me that without.... I don't think this is telling any tales out of school. I think this has been pretty open. With regard to going forward with a prestudy, this government's—these Liberals'—main objection is accountability. They don't want transparency. The deputy leader doesn't want to appear in front of the finance committee. Let's call a spade a spade. This is more hiding.
It doesn't matter to me personally or to parliamentarians, but we represent the Canadian people. Democracy, at its very heart, is about being transparent. This government was supposed to be open by default.
Now, when it comes to the legislation they put forward, they literally will not even get in the same room as us. We stand here more than willing and ready to negotiate; they stand here as obstructionists. In fact, they don't even stand here. I don't know where they are. I suspect they are in their offices in Parliament. They could walk down right now and be here in the next ten minutes, willing to negotiate and talk to us, but instead they stand hiding in their offices, unwilling to come down, negotiate and talk with us.
While Conservatives continue to stand for Canadians and are willing to talk, really with arms open, they are holed up in their offices literally five minutes from here. I think the Justice Building—