Thank you very much, Chairperson.
Thank you to the minister for appearing here today.
It's good to hear your comments about the bill. I know that you've put a lot of work into the bill. It's a very important bill. As you noted, there's been support in principle from all the parties in the House, because I think we all recognize that drug safety and the provisions in the bill are long overdue. In fact, I would remind us that it was as far back as 2011 that the Auditor General, in his report, flagged this issue as something that needed attention.
Minister, I have been a bit perplexed about the process here. Recently we had charges made, allegations, that this bill was being held up, when in actual fact it just had a very few hours of debate in the House at second reading. Of course, second reading, looking at the bill in principle, is very important. Members wanted to speak in the House. The government basically sat on the bill for six months.
I wonder if you could tell us why the government didn't move on this bill for six months and is now apparently trying to create a political crisis around this bill, that it has to be rushed through at the last minute, when really it's been sitting there for six months and not being called for debate. We could have debated it, have it go through committee, send it back to the House and it probably would have been passed by now if the government had moved on it. Could you respond to that please?