I did have just one thing to add to that, and I meant to mention this before. Just a reminder to the committee that when we're dealing with the priority of a fairly political private member's bill, C-568, and the Investment Canada Act, and weighing the priority of those two, I believe we had 12 hours of meetings during the summer on the census issue. For Bill C-568, we're going to hear from the same witnesses we heard from for 12 hours--I believe it was 12 hours--during the summer in committee.
As Mr. Wallace said, to pass a bill that we all know is going to pass anyway--it's going to pass six to five in the committee. There's no question. It's going to pass in the House. We know that's going to happen anyway; it's purely a political exercise. Is it really a priority? Is that equal? The Investment Canada Act is a study that the NDP has talked about making a priority for years. For months, the Liberals have talked about maybe making it a priority.
How, when we are weighing the two, are those two equal and worthy of a concurrent study? What possible motivation could there be for studying those concurrently, other than a political motivation? I don't understand what the purpose is of having a concurrent study on those two issues. If we're going to study, if we're serious as a committee about what we do, if we take our role as parliamentarians seriously.... I think Mr. Wallace was alluding to this.
I know this sounds like a rant. It sounds like a filibuster, although we're going to extend the meeting as long as it takes, but I think this needs to be discussed.
What is our role as a committee? Is it just to be pawns in some political game or are we actually wanting to get something done? And this notion of concurrent discussion of two separate issues, there hasn't been a good argument put forward for it. I can't possibly understand why we would want to approach it that way.
From my understanding, the Investment Canada Act is something we actually all take seriously, so why not study that first? Mr. Masse wants to say something, so I'll let him....