Thanks, Chair.
I hope we can have a productive meeting today, and perhaps I can appeal to my colleagues across the way. On two occasions, we have attempted to move a motion to study the budget implementation act. We know that the act will eventually get referred to our committee. Members opposite have had access to the details on that for quite some time now. In fact, eventually this committee will be responsible for studying all the budget 2025 measures, which are included in the BIA.
We've attempted to do a prestudy a number of times, with no success. In fact, the members opposite have voted to adjourn debate on multiple motions. I hope that today we can perhaps get to a point where we all agree that this committee has to fulfill its mandate and study the BIA. I'm proposing that a five-meeting study on the BIA would be quite reasonable to hear testimony.
I'm sure my friend Gabriel Ste-Marie, who was on this committee with me previously and was quite reasonable.... He's standing in for his colleague today, but I know he's a very reasonable person. I think he's always proven himself to be willing to do the work in this committee.