Thank you, Madam Chair.
Our colleague just made a number of, shall we say, interesting remarks.
True, I'm a new member of Parliament. The rules here don't necessarily match the rules that I was used to in another Parliament, where I served for a number of years. However, in the other Parliament, I never saw anything like this. I never saw a minister being summoned to appear before a committee, or a parliamentary committee in Quebec City, with only two days' notice. I find that unreasonable.
We already said we were willing to meet with the minister to discuss the next budget cycle and all sorts of other issues. We just need to give him a bit more time to clear his schedule. He has a full schedule and he must find a time to come see us. It could be next week or the week after. We all agree that the minister should appear before the committee. I don't know why we're discussing this. We can find a date, but we don't think that September 24 works.
Last week, the minister was in Europe, in Copenhagen, to discuss the geopolitical situation with his European counterparts and the implications for the Canadian and global economies.
He said that we must understand that the current situation in Canada and around the world is somewhat similar to the situation in 1945 in terms of the global economic order. We're emerging from a time of great distress. We're trying to rebuild what our American neighbours unfortunately decided to destroy, which is a global economic order based on predictable rules.
How can we switch our focus? How can we find a new way of working with all the countries that share our vision, as the Prime Minister has already said?
The current situation is quite complex. Parliamentarians must show some leniency. In other words, the minister must be given more than two days' notice to appear before the committee. Ten days would be enough. I think that we could be a bit more flexible in this area. I don't really see why we couldn't give him more time.
Furthermore, our colleague, the member for Mirabel, said that a big Liberal gathering was held during the summer and that we carried out pre‑budget consultations with friends. It would have been nice to see him at some of our consultations in Quebec. It certainly wasn't a gathering of friends. The discussions were interesting and important. We would like these individuals or groups to come here to speak to the committee and to share the information contained in the briefs that they submitted to us.
Again, we're dealing with a new world. It isn't simple. It's complex. It requires equally complex decisions, findings and actions. It all takes a bit of thought and time.
We believe that it's reasonable to insist that the meeting with the Minister of Finance and National Revenue take place a few days after September 24. I don't understand the insistence on September 24. I'm a bit surprised by this request.
It's unfortunate. We would also like to discuss both the pre‑budget consultation process and Bill C‑4. The parties in the House have already expressed their preliminary support for the bill. We now need to take the opportunity to look more closely at the bill by carrying out a clause‑by‑clause consideration. That way, we can move forward with this bill.
I remember that, as colleagues, we discussed the need to make adjustments to certain aspects of Bill C‑4. We're totally open to discussing this and seeing how we can make progress on this work.
I don't understand why we can't walk and chew gum at the same time. While we wait for the minister to come meet with us next week or the week after, we could easily start working on Bill C‑4. This would give us a chance to move forward with our discussions, which is really important. We would need to go back a long way to find anything that remotely resembles the current situation.
Let's be efficient and find ways to make progress on our parliamentary business while we wait for the minister to come see us in a few days. I don't think that this is such a big obstacle.
Thank you, Madam Chair.