Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will wait to see what the decision is, but I just want to bring up that I've seen in the past many things that have happened in committee, not just this committee but in other committees that I've watched, that have been outside of the procedure book or have been out of order. For example, I've seen in this HUMA committee in the past where the mover of a motion has amended the motion and it has been accepted even though it wasn't in order, and it moved forward.
It just shows how difficult it is for group decision-making tables to question things that they know are incorrect or out of order.
On this one, I'm not going to say that I know the book. It's right here, and I don't have the time to look at it, but when a motion gets moved to the floor and an amendment happens, the amendment gets dealt with before the motion. If there's a subamendment, that would be dealt with, but I've never seen a motion come to the floor, an amendment comes—and I'm not disputing that there wasn't a subamendment or that it wasn't addressed—but then on that main motion we haven't voted on yet we get another subamendment. I just have to say that I'm uncomfortable with the on-the-fly stuff we are doing right now and I think that's why we ask that things come to the committee with 48 hours for true consideration.
I'll just revisit the fact that this is a very serious situation. There is critical need for EI recipients to receive their entitlements when they are expecting them, and the technical and potentially fraud-related problems with their distribution must be resolved immediately. It is my understanding, from briefing notes, that ESDC is aware of this, has begun implementation, and has committed “to support clients on a priority basis when their benefits have been impacted as a result of identity theft.”
I'll also note for people who might be watching this meeting who are wondering why we are going back and forth on procedure when they haven't received payments for months, please, if you are a victim of this fraud, please make a phone call to the police, to the Canada Anti-Fraud Centre, to the two national credit union bureaus, including Equifax and TransUnion, and also to your banks and creditors to report the fraud.
I will also reiterate at this point that it seems to me to be reasonable to get answers to the question of how to get people the benefits to which they are entitled and that we do have competing priorities in this committee that I'd like to get to.
Thank you.