Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate that, because the issue around limiting debate is an extremely important one for parliamentarians. It is important to note that Mr. Cannan didn't mention the one important issue that came up when we talked about the amendments, which is the fact that motions to amend a clause of a bill do not require notice.
What we've had from the opposition is full cooperation--for eight days--since the time the clause-by-clause package was actually delivered. In no other committee have we seen this kind of cooperation from the opposition. Within eight days, over 100 amendments were put forward to improve this legislation--which was badly drafted, badly crafted, badly botched.
What we've seen from the opposition is very clearly complete cooperation. We don't need to do that. We could have brought forward the motions today. We could have provided them without notice. We could have dropped them now, and certainly we can choose to do that in the coming days.
But the issue is how the government will try to deal with a bill that desperately needs to be improved. Even from the strongest supporter's standpoint, it is very clearly a bill that has been botched.
We've heard limited testimony on that; it would have been wonderful for this committee to hear more. But to now have the proposal, the sledgehammer, to ensure there is virtually no debate on these motions, no debate on issues like clause 10, where we see a clause that could have huge ramifications for the future of the softwood industry.... We've heard some limited testimony to that effect, but the government is saying, “Well, we don't want to hear any more. No, sir, we don't want to know that there are problems with this bill.”
In clause 18 we now have an imposed double tax, and the amendments that were brought forward on this imposed double tax are amendments that are going to make a substantial difference to companies.
Mr. Harris himself asked the question on Tuesday. For a company like Canfor, what is the difference between, in clause 18, a double taxation--in other words, a tax of 18% taken off on the duty refund--and then a special charge levied that is another 18%?
Now, in Mr. Harris' case, he asked the question of what that would mean for Canfor, for example, which is an important business in his riding. And he said--