That's a novel approach, but it's welcome.
I guess the question I have to begin with is—and I don't ask this in a facetious way, but a sincere way—how are things going with this bill? You've travelled extensively across the country. You have paid attention to the hearings that are going on in the parliamentary committee. Quite frankly, I know of all your efforts you've made to communicate with Canadians, including with editorial boards. You've done a lot of work on this.
The message that I get, and that we collectively get from people who appear in front of us as witnesses, is not that positive. I mean this in a non-partisan way: there are major, major concerns about the issue of the powers the minister will have. There are major concerns about not just the substance but the way this whole project actually rolled out: introducing it in the budget bill, the lack of consultation, and things being pre-imposed. Right? But those concerns could easily have been erased.
I was struck by something the minister said. She said she wanted to thank the committee for the great work it had done on lost Canadians. It would have been simpler for everybody, and we would probably have achieved a better product, had we been given the same opportunity on this particular file—