Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My comments on this amendment will be largely synoptic of my view on this legislation in general, and of the approach that our side will be taking to amendments in general.
We think this is a very good bill. It's a critically important step towards combatting the scourge of forced and child labour around the world. We don't think this bill is perfect, or that this bill should be the final word in terms of what government needs to do when it comes to combatting these issues.
It is challenging to pass private members' business under the best of circumstances, and minority Parliaments are not the best of circumstances. I think it's important for us to recognize the opportunity that this bill presents, to move forward with that opportunity, but to also not let that dampen our enthusiasm for continuing to challenge the government to take various additional steps in other areas.
I do want to recognize Senator Dechêne's excellent work, and the work of Mr. McKay as well. We were in the process of considering various amendments. There are issues such as a targeted regional approach around certain hot spots where there are very high levels of forced and child labour. We would welcome additional legislative proposals along those lines.
The reality is that if this committee passes any amendment, then this bill will have to go and finish its journey in the House, and then go back through the Senate with a difficult-to-predict timeline and certainly with the risk, in a minority Parliament, of an election at any time.
I look at some of the proposals that have been brought forward and some of the amendments that we were considering in advance of this. We asked if any of these things was worth seeing the bill not pass at all. Does it make more sense to support this bill without amendment, to let it pass, and then to consider additional proposals that could be brought forward? Our conclusion is that it is better to not see amendments to this bill, to let this bill do its work as it is, and then to build on that work in the future.
Also, it is to learn from the experience of this bill being passed. It's been such a long time that people have been talking about this issue. We haven't seen the passage of legislation, so let's let this bill pass. Then it will allow us to get a sense of how the revised system is working and propose additional changes.
One thing I'll say about the process is that I would have liked for this committee to begin the process of studying this legislation much earlier, to hear from more witnesses. We might have been in a better position to consider amendments if, a few months ago, we had the benefit of more witness testimony. We could have considered those. We would have had a little bit more available runway left.
Generally, it is the practice of parliamentary committees to prioritize legislation once it is received, because legislation is where the committee exercises its hard power. Yet, with this bill, we're almost at the point of the full 60 sitting days having run out, between the time we received this from the House and its being automatically reported back.
I think the right thing to do now, under the circumstances that we are in, is to pass this bill without amendment. I do hope that in the future we take into consideration the value of prioritizing legislation, and that if we see further legislation at this committee, we'll move forward more quickly with the legislation that comes to us.
Nothing in this bill merits its being stopped. The bill needs to pass. Then we can continue the work after that to do more. On that basis, we'll be opposing this and other amendments and supporting this legislation, hoping that it passes into law as soon as possible.