I tend to agree that where this committee has been effective and has got some work done--and it has got some work done--we have met as a subcommittee to air out some of the positions of each of the parties and had, I thought, a respectful and thoughtful conversation amongst ourselves. I think we achieved some things there.
The object is to make this committee work and to get some work done on behalf of the people of Canada and our constituents. The more we can use a process to get us there, the better.
Where I've been frustrated, Mr. Chair, is when on a couple of occasions—this is why I said it worked relatively well as opposed to perfectly well—an agenda arrived at committee where obviously decisions had been made somewhere that were a surprise to me. I felt I wasn't given an opportunity to really get into that and find out why, how, etc., and how that would impact further work that some of us wanted to get done.
But I thought overall we got some work done. We're into a fairly contentious piece of business right now with Bill C-257, and we have to expect that there will be some manoeuvering, shall we say, going on. But overall, I think we've been achieving some success, and I think the success has been achieved because we have been meeting in that smaller group from time to time, a subcommittee, to air out and deal with some of those areas that might be contentious and get them out of the way or at least addressed so that we can move forward.
It's about relationships, and about building relationships. For me, that's what happened there and caused the committee to be more constructive, proactive, and able to get some things done.