Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, I understand that the government is eager to push this legislation through. I'm all for efficiency. That said, this is important legislation. It is very comprehensive. It's very complex. We heard conflicting testimonies from a number of witnesses, and yet to do the clause-by-clause, I just received these documents last night and this morning. In fact, one of the amendments I was handed after I entered the room today. Now normally in my experience with committees, the amendments are handed out ahead of time so that the members of the committee have sufficient opportunity to review the documents on their own then to meet with their caucus members to debate and discuss the positions before they decide how they want to proceed. That opportunity has been denied us, and especially as this morning, we were all required to be in our caucuses. We often have commitments over lunch and then we've been required to be in the House of Commons. So there has been no opportunity whatsoever for the members to give these amendments the due diligence that they both need and deserve. I do believe that the broader purpose of putting forward good legislation would be better served is all of the members had the opportunity to give these amendments the attention they deserve, and if I respectfully request that we be given more time so that the quality of legislation is up to the standard that Canadians expect of us.