Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As my colleague Mr. Cleary pointed out, despite all his requests, he has received no statistics about the problem occurring outside 200 nautical miles. I feel that Mr. Cleary is very well aware of the content of the bill we are studying. His comments are quite correct. He has received nothing that defines the problem outside 200 nautical miles. But that is where the crux of the problem most probably lies.
I am also going to take a moment to point out that a lot of things are happening in the way that committees are managed. The time allotted for the official opposition to speak is very hard to take. According to the order that has been set, we start with the party in power and the official opposition has to wait some time before it can ask questions again.
The last time that the minister appeared, we also saw that she tends not to want to be available for the two hours scheduled for the committee meeting, but for one hour only. We saw how far that can go, which, to me is entirely too far. The official opposition had only 10 minutes in which to ask questions. In addition, we were asked to ask questions two days after the budget was tabled, when our mandate is to hold the minster to account. That is what responsible government is about. I feel that the idea still exists in the minds of most Canadians. So, at a standing committee, we had 10 minutes to ask questions about a bill and about decisions in a federal budget.
In my opinion, this is bad taste taken to the extreme and a shining illustration of the way the committee should not be run. I am taking this opportunity because our session is a public one. I definitely want those comments to be noted.