Indeed, we do have to restore the balance regarding the presentations. As we saw a bit earlier, there was only one union representative. There was an imbalance with regard to the testimony. It's good to have people who want to look at the overall situation and present different points of view among the group of witnesses. Moreover, the same is true for everyone: we have many other activities. We'd like to do them in the time that you allocated, Mr. Chairman. I know that the committee has to consider many other bills and has a lot of work to do. That is why Ms. Davies' proposal is a good one. You could find time where we could add an hour or two in order to have a better balance of witnesses on the one hand, and on the other hand add an hour or two in order for us to hear everyone. It's important for us to hear all arguments.
In the case of this bill in particular, it's important that we be there to hear people who want to make their views known. I think that this is an excellent initiative. Certain persons perhaps did not appear because the rules of the game are such that national organizations are invited. The representatives of unions, who understand and normally apply the rules very well, probably did not want to present the requests of their affiliated unions. If that the case, these people were asked not to come and not to stand candidates.
Some will say this is all going too fast, that we'll never have time and that we're holding these debates too hastily. Let me remind you that in the case of Bill C-2, John Baird who was then president of the Treasury Board, had bragged in the House that he'd made the committee on Bill C-2 work hard and that he had pushed his bill through very quickly. He was very proud to say that he had done this in 72 days. With regard to our bill, three months have passed since the vote on second reading. He also said that he made the committee work over 90 hours in six weeks. We know that not all weeks are created equal. But that is still an average of 15 hours. I know full well because I sat on that committee that certain weeks, there were 40 hours of witness testimony. We know that that could be done. Where there's a will there's a way. Moreover, if we act quickly, the committee will have more time to examine other files.
In addition, the meeting with the officials is extremely important, especially since the wording of the bill contains a translation problem in clause 94(2.4). That has to be fixed as soon as possible and we must advise the other witnesses. I don't know exactly what could be done about this. Perhaps our clerk can answer that later on. The fact remains that we have to solve this matter of the faulty translation of that paragraph which says something we don't want it to say.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.