I called this committee the “committee of hope” because we began considering this bill at the start of a session of Parliament, which allows us to hope that we can reach the end of the normal legislative process.
The order of priority for the introduction of private members' bills is determined by a random draw and, if an MP is slated for the end of the session, they sometimes only have enough time to introduce their bill, without getting very far studying it. Moreover, if an election is called or Parliament is prorogued, everything dies on the Order Paper. That is unfortunately what happened with all the other bills. So the timing of a bill's introduction is very important.
In this case, I was able to introduce my bill in December 2021, right after the election, because I was fortunate to be randomly selected by draw as one of the first 30 MPs to do so. I felt strongly about sponsoring this bill so it would have every possible chance and so the House of Commons could study it before it dies on the Order Paper.
My second reason for calling it the “committee of hope” is that I hope my Liberal colleagues will not hide behind the requirement for royal assent. That would really be very sad. I am asking them to think about it and discuss it in caucus, since they are working on modernizing the Employment Insurance Act. It would be unfortunate if there were very little to show after all this work. We must at least get this amendment to the act passed.