I just want to respond to Mr. Lobb's comments implying that, if the government is asked by a committee for information, they're not obliged to give it unless we ask two or three or four more times. That is an abdication of responsibility not only to this committee but to Parliament and further beyond that to the people who will be affected by this bill.
We did indicate we were opposed to this bill for discriminatory reasons. We asked the minister those questions about where the 190,000 came from. Mr. Lobb and others will recall that I asked a number of witnesses if they'd been able to do any analysis on this bill, on their own, to identify the 190,000, because we had heard early on that there might be 60,000. But who knows that? Who has the resources to do this kind of analysis? The department does. Everybody else said they don't have the numbers to know that, but at some point in time you have to believe....
I would remind members that the government came up with a cost for a 360-hour national standard of $4.4 billion, about which they themselves later said they were sorry but it was $2.5 billion. In fact, it was $1.2 billion. The government still uses that $4-billion-plus account in the House of Commons.
If we ask for information as a committee and the minister and officials oblige us by saying they'll get back to us, they should get back to us. We shouldn't have to beg them for the information.