Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I too would like to join my colleagues in welcoming you.
It would seem to me that it's probably only once you've served on this committee that you really begin to understand the importance of the estimates and budgeting process, so I feel very fortunate to have been appointed to this committee and to be going through this study.
That brings me to one of my first questions, which would be how we transfer that sense of importance to our colleagues in other committees, because we definitely have a clear understanding and need to transfer that. That might have something to do with tackling the culture of committees and our understanding about the importance of the whole estimates process.
I definitely concur with your assessment of the witnesses that we've brought in and the value of their testimony. We've heard many recommendations, some that are in complete opposition to one another, and some that have actually garnered consensus.
There are a couple of things I'd like you to comment on, the first would be the timing of the estimates and the budget, because that seems to be a quick fix. The other would be on the deemed reported rule. Again, when we say maybe we should be removing the deemed reported rule, it might be so that committees would understand it's important to go through that process, but I'm not sure that we'd actually be accomplishing what we want to by doing that. So if you could comment on that, I'd appreciate it.