Just for clarification, though, at the end of the last meeting you asked that we end the meeting early, and Mr. Epp and I were on the speakers list for the other issue at hand. So we are today receiving the briefing book for Bill C-16 as well as the bill itself.
I would tell you that we are very interested in moving forward with this bill. I see no reason why we couldn't do both issues, probably concurrently. I would say that we're all aware of a piece of legislation that we're waiting to hear back on, and that is the voter ID. That was a piece of legislation that went through this committee and indeed did go through the Senate and ended up having very extreme, unintended consequences. Because of that, one of the concerns we had in the incarnation of Bill C-55 when this bill was before us before the session prorogued was the fact that there really hadn't been consultation or studies done on this bill, although it was the view of the government that it would increase voter participation. Because of that, I think it's absolutely essential that we do due diligence, again not holding this bill up in any way. I think this is an important bill and should receive active, intelligent, and informed discussion.
I would ask that Elections Canada be asked to appear before us to find out if there are any things they have concerns with or what their view would be, as well as some kind of expert that deals with electoral reform. I would put forward Professor Ned Franks, as well as David Docherty from Wilfrid Laurier University. I know those two individuals are well informed and make it their life's work to study these kinds of issues. So in order that we make sure this bill does what it purports to do and doesn't do something we're not aware of, I think it's absolutely fundamental that we hear those witnesses before we move forward.