Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's good to see members after the constituency week. I hope everyone had a good constituency week in their ridings.
I think this is a really important issue that we're debating right now. I think, as we're all aware, there are a number of important components in this bill with a number of important deliverables for folks. I think it's important that they be delivered to folks in a timely way.
I'm thinking of things like the permanent elimination of student loans. I'm thinking about a range of home affordability measures—for example, the creation of a new tax-free first home savings account, a doubling of the first-time home buyers' tax credit, and ensuring that property flippers pay their fair share. These are the kinds of things I hear about all the time, especially the property-flipping, from folks in my community.
Another piece that I think is important is enhancing the Canada workers benefit to ensure that payments are delivered quarterly for low and medium-income Canadians. I think there are a lot of people around this table who are really concerned about the inflation that Canadians are struggling with and the cost of living, especially for the low and medium-income Canadians. This is an example of something that I think is really important.
I think that, in light of what's happening with the rising cost of living that people are facing and in light of the measures that are in this bill and the impact these could have on folks, we have to take it upon ourselves to study this legislation in an expeditious manner. I think that's what our constituents would expect of us.
It was my hope that we would adopt the motion at our last meeting so that we could hear today from officials on Bill C-32. Unfortunately, we're not able to do that. To be frank, given that we haven't gotten to that place yet, I'm just concerned about our ability to study this in a timely manner. Ultimately, if we don't do that, then we're not going to get the supports to the people who need them in the time frame in which they need them.
I'm, therefore, proposing the following amendment: that after the words “be invited to appear with her officials on the bill”, we delete the word “and” and add the following after the words “in the committee's full study of the bill”. It would read:
and, should the bill be referred to the committee by Thursday, November 24, 2022: a. Clause-by-clause study of the bill commence no later than Wednesday, November 30, 2022; b. Amendments to the bill be submitted by 5:00 PM EST Thursday, November 24, 2022; c. and that the committee immediately proceeds to this study and hear from officials from the Department of Finance.
I'm happy to circulate the language to members of the committee, but in the end, the purpose of this proposed amendment, really, is to ensure that we study this bill in an expeditious manner and deliver the help to folks who need it in an expeditious manner and on the timelines they would expect us to.