Thank you, Madam Chair.
Again, welcome. I know what fine work you folks do for the people of Canada.
Frank, you and I got to spend some time together this summer that for me was sort of bonus time with the bureaucrats, along with Minister Finley and others.
I want to go back to this issue I raised, which is causing me trouble. We support the bill and we don't want to hold up the bill. This committee has agreed that we would try to finalize our study on this by next week, so we're not trying to be difficult, but I am increasingly perplexed at the economics and the analysis that have gone behind this.
On the one hand, the minister insists that there were surveys done and there was some rigorous examination of the uptake of people who are self-employed and who want to take advantage of these benefits, enough that a rate has been set, with some confidence. Also, you have these surveys that allege to have a great deal of accurate information as to who is going to take it up, yet you can't give us a cost on it because it's optional.
There are many things that are optional, but that's what actuaries and accountants and analysts do. They plug numbers in and say “this is our model”. It could be right, it could be wrong, but this is the model. Can you explain what's missing there for me? Because I don't get that.