With all due respect, Mr. Chair, I don't want to go over the history that we discussed at the subcommittee meeting, but I think everyone knows that we had agreed in December to four meetings to study Bill C-54. We had a six-week break when people had ample time to review the legislation and propose witnesses. That apparently didn't happen in several cases.
We came back. We had another subcommittee meeting. We agreed to almost double the amount of time for review of the bill. We had an agreement to deal with it in seven, and now, at the very next meeting, we are being asked to increase the amount of time again. We have to live by our commitments at the subcommittee meeting or else the committee just cannot function on a reasonable basis.
We've been told by witnesses that this legislation is very important, and that every day we delay, children are being sexually abused. I believe this is legislation that people want us to deal with quickly.
We all know there is a possibility that we won't be here beyond the end of March because of the threat of a possible spring election. I don't think any of us.... I think all parties have said that they think certainly a large part--if not all--of this bill is important and they support it. I think it behooves us all as members of Parliament to do our utmost best to get this legislation passed and back to the House and, hopefully, sent off to the Senate before the threat of any spring election that might occur around the end of March.