Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I agree very much with my colleague, Mr. Bergeron. It appears to me that some of the argument for why we are not looking at this bill clause by clause and putting forward amendments is because it is an inconvenience. I have to say, this is our job, to try to take legislation that comes to our committee and make it better. I would have very much appreciated the opportunity to hear from the CORE. But of course, the opportunity to extend the time that we looked at this bill was not something that came forward.
I would have very much appreciated looking at this bill in the spring, but the Conservatives filibustered our committee for hours and hours on end. With all due respect, we have to do clause-by-clause because it's literally the only part of our job that this committee has been able to complete.
With regard to the ombudsperson, I will very much disagree with Mr. McKay on the job that the ombudsperson is doing. At this point we have an ombudsperson who has been stripped of all her ability to do a good job. She has not been doing what needs to be done to protect impacted communities around the world. She has done very little to protect people in Indonesia, Peru, Guatemala, all around the world where Canadian mining companies are causing untold grief, untold suffering and environmental degradation. This government has not stood up and said, “You're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to do that work flying our flag.”
I would assume that the ombudsperson, who I would think really wants to do this work and has been hampered by the Liberal government, would be very keen to have another opportunity to do the work that she has been asked to do, by giving her more things that she actually can be working on.
Ultimately, what we need to do is fix the bill, make the bill so there are no loopholes for Canadian companies to get out of it. This is one of the ways we can do it. Instead of a symbolic gesture by the Liberal government, instead of all the right words and none of the action, this is the way we can take action.