Thank you very much, Mr. Laforest, for your welcome to the committee.
Let me respond to you, first of all, with regard to the text of our statement. It was circulated neither in English nor in French to members of the committee. I would have liked to have been able to have had a final version to put in writing in front of all of you. We were fine-tuning that while I was in Washington, as recently as last evening, based on testimony before the committee that took place, I believe, yesterday. So it simply wasn't logically possible to do so. Had we tabled a statement before the committee, we'd have done so in English and in French.
The second question you asked is whether in essence there is anything good about the bill. Yes, I think the intentions behind the bill are certainly good. All of us subscribe to the belief that Canadian companies should adhere to the highest possible standards.
I personally believe, the business community believes, and the mining sector believes that Canada's reputation for maintaining the highest standards in the world is a competitive advantage for us. We do not want to see instances where people fall well off the norm or fall below best practices. We want to encourage everybody to follow the highest possible standards.
So the intent is right; the problem is that the mechanisms contained in the bill could be exceptionally damaging and could undermine the very intentions that the bill expressly seeks to achieve.