Mr. Chairperson, when Bill C-43 first came out, it was one of those hot issues which not only members of Parliament but many different stakeholders interested in this whole file jumped on. The issue is one of public policy considerations and how wide open that was. There was a great deal of concern. Then the minister, quite a bit later, indicated, “Well, you know, this is kind of like what I mean”. I'm happy that he has something now listed on the Internet, but those are all things that can change quite easily also. People need to be aware of and concerned about that.
The issue before us now is not whether the government will vote down this amendment. I will be voting against the amendment. However, there's got to be concerns in terms of where this particular list comes from. Is it all-encompassing? Is it possible that something might have been missed? We don't know. To what degree did we afford presenters the opportunity to come to the committee and say, “You're missing this” or “Why would you include this?”, in terms of the amendment?
That's why I think it's premature for us to support the amendment, but I do believe it highlights the importance, in terms of the whole public policy consideration, which is a huge flaw in the legislation itself. If we really want to deal with this, I would suggest that we defeat the amendment and then defeat the clause itself, and send it back to the drawing board. That's what I would recommend to all committee members.