Well, even if we are.
The third thing is that I don't know how Mr. Lake is prescient enough to know that this particular bill is going to require six meetings. I don't know that. This is the first witness we've had.
When I read the report prepared here, it says that organized labour is virtually unanimous in support of this bill, while management is unanimously opposed. It seems to me that when there's such a terrific and clear split between two essential groups on the management of our economy, we have to be careful that we're not jumping ahead too fast. I don't know, maybe six meetings is a good idea. Maybe we need ten. Maybe we need four.
I would like to hear the first few witnesses, Mr. Chair, so we have a little bit of a feel for the thing before we decide how long it's going to take. I don't think anybody is anxious to ram it through without having proper knowledge and understanding.
The other thing is that we have a responsibility to the people in the House who voted at second reading to pass this and send it to committee. I know a number of people in my caucus who said this idea has come up two or three times in Parliament and has usually died on the order paper because we've gone to an election or whatever. It has never been aired, so a lot of people in the House who aren't on this committee are puzzled by this. They have been lobbied by both sides and they really are expecting us to sort it out.
So my suggestion, Mr. Chair, would be to refer Mr. Lake's motion to the end of the couple of days we have scheduled. By then all of us will have a better feel for it, an idea as to whether or not we want to go to clause-by-clause, as according to the skeleton plan we have now, or whether we want to hear more witnesses, whether we really are comfortable to go to clause-by-clause.
I think his motion is premature at this moment. But I think once we get a feel for the conflict that I think we're going to hear about when we hear these witnesses, we could decide if we want to move ahead to clause-by-clause or if we feel we need to air more of these issues.
I don't want to vote against Mr. Lake's motion. I don't want to vote for it. I don't know yet. We're only beginning to expose the ideas. I mean, this is the proponent, for heaven's sake, and we haven't even heard him out. I think it's all premature to make these kinds of decisions so quickly.