The fact is that we determined what witnesses we would hear. We actually agreed, on this side of the table, that we would....
Yes, we've heard an imbalance, and there hasn't been equal representation, but we've certainly heard from a lot of employers. Nobody could argue that we haven't heard from all kinds of employers. National, regional, local, provincial, large operations, small operations--we've heard it all, as we should. And we agreed that we wouldn't submit any further labour witnesses because we felt that the arguments had been made. So the suggestion that somehow we've heard too much from the union side I find quite astounding.
In terms of further consultation, I really want to suggest to Mr. Savage that we should be very clear that this is a tactic being put forward by the Conservatives to basically kill this bill. I think it would be most unfortunate if any member decided to go along with that.
If there are issues around particular points--for example, I know that some members have concerns with regard to essential services--then I would hope that this is what we will be doing tomorrow and Thursday. We will go through this bill clause-by-clause. Members have the opportunity to submit amendments. If I'm not mistaken, tomorrow at noon we can submit amendments to the bill. So if clarifications are needed, then certainly the members have an opportunity to do that.
So my point is that I think we have to continue in good faith. And this is my final point. If there are members here who believe that this is a bad bill politically or ideologically or whatever, then they'll have an opportunity to vote against it. We will go back to the report stage in third reading in the House. If there are members who think it's not balanced and that they haven't achieved what they want to achieve at committee, then they will have an opportunity to vote for this in the House.
So I feel that it's very important that we do our work, that we do as much as we can to deal with this bill, and that we make our determination. Then let the House decide. That's the point of sending it back. That's the point of its being here, to go through those details and send back a bill, with amendments or without amendments. Then there will be a further two hours of debate in the House. Then all members of the House will decide, on its merit, whether or not they believe in this bill--beyond the principle, in terms of the substance--and whether they think it's balanced. And if they don't, they can vote against it.
So what I want to say is that this is absolutely not the time to do this. We should continue our work. We're close now to concluding the committee process. So let's uphold that process and do our work. And let's just continue with the steps. And other decisions will be made and people can make a decision about what they want to do at that point.