Thank you, Madam Chair.
The thing we all have in common here is that we want things to move. However, we also need to be realistic with our timelines. If we're not being realistic, then we're inadvertently going to just slow things down, because we're expecting things that just can't happen.
For the Minister of Finance to come here.... There are a lot of things at stake. These are topics that can move markets. This is very sensitive information, and it's important that adequate time is given to prepare any kinds of documents or confidentiality reviews. There are legal considerations sometimes. Of course, there are notifications with stakeholders sometimes that are at play here as well. There are a lot of things that the Minister of Finance needs to prepare in advance of coming to the committee. Of course, there's also the translation of official documents, and there's really just the professional courtesy of giving the Minister of Finance more than two days, which I think is quite important.
Now there are a lot of other things that we could be discussing as well. We have over 940 pre-budget consultation requests that we could be spending our time looking at and discussing, so it's really important that we find a consensus. We don't want to spend time going over things when we know they're not realistic.
I would just say that I really hope we can find a way forward here, a compromise that is a bit more realistic with regard to the timeline for the finance minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair.