Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses here this afternoon.
I have just one question, but I want to get on the record that I do support the passage of this bill, and as quickly as possible. It's hard to imagine that we have $1 billion in business here and 1,300 different institutions that affect the wealth of many different individuals, and there's no set of rules in place right now. I think it's important to point out that this is enabling legislation for licensing and regulation that is vacant right now, and I know it's not just Manitoba that has been leading the charge on this. There are other governments—Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—that have also indicated sincere preparatory work to move on this.
What I would like to focus on is that there was some attempt at one point to have a universal approach to this across the board for Canada. That didn't quite come into place, and maybe we can shed a little light on that, because I think it might ease some of the concerns. Once again, this is going to facilitate those who want to go forward to this type of regulatory regime, but at the same time, it doesn't force anyone to do anything, and that's important. If it's not passed, my understanding is that the governments that do want to move on this in their own provincial rights will then be stymied and will not be able to proceed in any effective way to protect Canadian consumers.