On five-year reviews, when the department came before us they said that five years wasn't long enough. If the department doesn't feel that five years is long enough, certainly we could look at seven years or whatever.
The point is that we've seen other pieces of legislation that have come before this committee. Specific claims in particular is one piece of legislation that comes to mind, and there was a review mandated in that piece of legislation. I look forward to the time when we can actually bring that back to the committee, because we've heard on the ground that there are a number of problems with that piece of legislation.
We've heard sufficient witness testimony on Bill C-47, with a number of proposed amendments from a number of different groups. It would seem reasonable if the government is unwilling to entertain any amendments to at least give us an opportunity to re-examine the legislation after it's been implemented to see if there are problems that have been caused because these amendments weren't put forward.
One would suspect that in part the reason the government won't support a five-year review—and I'm presuming they're going to vote against this amendment because they've voted against every other amendment—is that there is an issue of cost. But these reviews are important to allow Parliament to see whether the legislation they've put forward is actually effective, if it's working, or if we've missed the boat on anything. There are other mechanisms to do this, but this seems to be a way to regularize it.
We have a number of other commissions, and although it's not a review, they do report to Parliament regularly. The Cree-Naskapi Commission is one. They come before the committee when the report is tabled. We get a chance to hear how that's going and the kinds of problems they're having or the successes they're having.
It would seem a reasonable thing to do in such a comprehensive, sweeping piece of legislation.