Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank my colleague, whom I know always operates in good faith in the House and is deeply concerned about some issues that she has with...and I look forward to eventually getting to those clauses.
We would have already been there if we hadn't been subjected to the Conservative filibuster on this bill, which we didn't anticipate because we were working quite well together on this committee. It certainly felt like we had unanimous consent on the motion that programmed our time. We heard from all the ministers. We considered all the clauses and all the testimony. We're really debating a.... Well, we're not debating the bill. It's the minutia of a subamendment to the Conservative amendment that we're really debating here.
I want to point out one last thing, which is, as we heard from officials at the very onset of this particular amendment, CPC-13, that the chief actuary is already required to produce a very detailed report on the health of the Canada pension plan. It has been tabled. The Minister of Finance referred it to the House yesterday...or on June 8. I'm forgetting what day of the week it is because we've been here for so many hours, but that has taken place. That includes the impacts on the pension plan of the measures that have been put forward. Again, the government would never jeopardize the sustainability of the Canada pension plan. We're only lowering contributions by 40 basis points, because the chief actuary and all provinces and territories unanimously agreed to lower those pension contributions.
It's something the Conservatives advocated for without having the information that they're now requesting, which is interesting because it's inconsistent with the very argument that they're making. We see often the hypocrisy that the Conservatives display in Parliament. In fact, we see that every day in the House of Commons, but in this particular case, it's pretty rich for them to now be asking for additional data and information when they themselves advocated for lowering pension plan contributions for Canadian workers. We're actually aligned for once, and here they are sticking arbitrary things in the way to prevent this bill from getting through Parliament before the House rises for the summer.
That's what I have to say. I'll be quiet now for a little while. I'm sure members opposite will appreciate that, because they don't like it when I speak the truth in this committee. I'm sure that they will continue to filibuster this committee, although we hope that they'll come to their senses and allow this to move forward. That's what Canadians expect us to be doing right now, not sitting here listening to an endless filibuster.
Thanks.