Mr. Chair, I don't have any questions, but I do have a couple of comments, if you don't mind.
I'd like to thank you for coming. You've certainly clarified a lot of issues and brought another very reliable perspective on this piece of work. It certainly confirms my sense of why I supported the Bloc with their amendment.
It is a different scenario in Quebec, and this creates a disparity that I think at some point needs to be addressed. It could have been addressed had the government been willing to accept some amendments that would have improved this piece of legislation when we were doing clause-by-clause. But nevertheless, here we are.
We had committed to getting this bill back into the House before the end of the term, and in fact, that's where we are. I think had the government been open to it, it would have been the intelligent thing to do. We have people on this side of the House who I think have a lot of sincere and valuable contributions to make. When they are not accepted, it's unfortunate.
Also, I think the numbers in here confirm the concern that the CLC and CAW brought, which is that the larger employment fund at the end of the day will end up paying for some of this because we haven't made it mandatory. That's unfortunate as well.
I moved an amendment in committee that was ruled out of order, but that would have asked the government to consider.... And maybe if Ed would hear this, I think it's important. I don't know. But I'm offering it in all sincerity and I think it would be helpful if this expert panel, which has been talked about now on a number of occasions, might be brought in as a further amendment by the government. It could be done at third reading in the House, to establish an expert panel so that we could quickly deal with some of the inequities that I think will almost immediately begin to show themselves as we begin to work with this important piece of public policy, which extends a benefit to a group of people who are obviously in need of it.
Those are my comments.
I want to thank the witness for coming.
I also want to thank the chair for providing this opportunity and Mr. Komarnicki and Mr. Savage for having come to this agreement to actually have him come before us today.