What bill are we on, Chair?
Okay, it would have been my preference that we'd had an opinion from the Auditor General, but I think if the government will agree that we will have an independent actuary, agreed upon by the opposition parties, come as a witness to this committee sometime within the next three working weeks of this committee to give an independent analysis of this bill, we will support getting this bill through today.
Our reasoning on this is that, yes, the bill will go to the House, but let's keep in mind that people will be paying for this, starting January 1, for a year. It has to go through the Senate. There may be time to make adjustments. If nothing else, we'll get the assurance that either this bill is actuarially sound—that the rates set are actuarially sound—or it's not, and the government will have to make adjustments accordingly.
It may not be a perfect solution, Mr. Chair, but we have made a commitment—although I wasn't keen on it—to move this bill through by tomorrow. We have travel next week. We don't want to be unduly obstreperous to the process, but we want to have some rigour, as we've raised.
So if Mr. Komarnicki will agree to this committee's hearing an independent actuary of the choosing of the opposition parties before Christmas....