Mr. Chair, I do not believe it's the kind of motion that's in order. Certainly when we're dealing with clause-by-clause amendments, what we're dealing with is very important legislation, and we have to have the opportunity to express ourselves. So certainly all members from all parties have amendments that are brought forward to this committee. We certainly know, and we've heard from the testimony on Tuesday, that how we treat this bill is of utmost importance. If we make mistakes in how we treat this bill, mistakes on how we choose to amend the various concerns that have been brought to our attention, either through the witnesses we heard on Tuesday or those who were refused to be allowed to be witnesses through the discussions this morning.... So we have some very serious concerns.
This is a highly technical bill. It contains numerous clauses and subclauses, in each of which the wording will have fundamental impacts on the softwood industry across the country.
I was in Thunder Bay just a few days ago talking to softwood workers about the impact of Bill C-24. I believe, in fact, softwood workers in Thunder Bay were one of the first groups to write in to this committee to say they wanted to testify in front of the committee. They want to testify because they're concerned about the impact of the bill. They're concerned about the impact of the bill because they're not certain that the government will accept the amendments that have been offered from the opposition parties.
We've had numerous amendments from Mr. LeBlanc, which are important amendments that I think will have an impact on improving this bill. I'm not sure if it will be improved to the extent that it would actually be something that anyone could support, but certainly to improve it we've had amendments.
Mr. Cardin and Mr. André tabled amendments. This means that there are amendments that are important to the members seated around this table. The practice in the House of Commons is a very simple one. With regard to committees, we do not attempt to muzzle people who are trying to present amendments, who are speaking to them. Often, as the case may be, the interactive aspect of the debate around each amendment is extremely important, because it facilitates improving the bill. This way of doing things traces back to the very beginnings of Parliament. Committees have an important role to play with regard to amendments to bills. Each member has something to contribute. It is today completely out-moded, Mr. Chairman, to attempt to muzzle members of Parliament or to curb debate.