I'm astonished by the fact that this government has decided to draft a bill 100 pages long, nine bills in one, but that it doesn't even want to assume responsibility for going through it properly. We're not the ones who decided to put all that together, it's you. Some thought should have been given to it. Of course there are going to be lots of amendments proposed, because it contains 100 pages.
It's not that we wanted to stretch out the time or spend hundreds of hours on it. We are quite simply complying with the legislative process. It's the time it takes to get through a 100-page bill. I'm surprised that this government doesn't understand that you need a lot more time to get through a 100-page bill than to get through a 20-page bill. As far as I'm concerned, it's just simple arithmetic.
When we were elected to the House, we assumed responsibility for making sound legislation. We're responsible for making sure the best bills are drafted and passed; it's our responsibility to the Canadian population. Right now, we're not even complying with the legislative process, we don't even want to hear the amendments that would improve this bill and ensure that our streets are really made safer. But that's what we want.
We're completely in favour of certain parts of this bill. Moreover we tried to have certain parts of the bill adopted quickly in the House, and you completely rejected this idea. I think that some parts of this bill could have been adopted, since we were all completely in favour. But you were opposed to this initiative. In my opinion, that's completely unacceptable.
We've heard a lot of witnesses. We have spent money for them to come here so that we could hear what they had to say. I wish to point out that, even among the witnesses summoned by the government, no one said, except for one or two people, that the bill was perfect as is. It's arrogance to think that something can be drafted perfectly straight off. It doesn't happen, because we're not perfect; we're human beings.
We should listen to what these witnesses are telling us, the voices of the Canadian people, the experts and individuals who will be directly affected by this bill. You are not even prepared to do so. It's completely unacceptable. It's a lack of respect for the legislative process. Why do we have a legislative process if we don't respect it? The legislative process exists for a reason: so that we can examine this bill and be assured we've done all we can to make our streets safe and for the population to be truly secure. But that's not what we're doing now. We claim everything is fine. I repeat that this is arrogance.
We are 308 members. We cannot talk on behalf of everyone without having heard the people. If we're not ready to do that, why are we here? This isn't what the people asked us to do. The people elected us to listen to them. Why do we invite witnesses if we don't listen to them? I ask the question, because sincerely I don't see the use of spending money to have people appear before the committee. Some of the witnesses were victims. It was very hard for these people to testify, because they had to recall some unpleasant memories. By adopting this bill as quickly as possible, it's as if they were being told that their testimonies didn't count. That's not our responsibility, that's not the reason why we're here. We're here to listen to them.
You say you want to have this bill passed within the first 100 days of your mandate. This is a promise you've made. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't keep your promises, but you have to think before you make them. It's totally unacceptable not to spend time on a bill on the pretext that the deadline for its adoption is approaching. Just because you made a promise? I don't think this is a promise that you should have made.
This bill will have major repercussions for many people. Some provinces, like Quebec, have completely rejected the bill. An entire province wishes to make amendments to the bill, but we're not listening to it, because we won't even have a chance to table these amendments. Quebec doesn't want this bill and it's not the only one, moreover, in this situation. Ontario is also rejecting the bill. If the provinces are obliged to accept and respect this bill, they should at least be able to propose a couple of amendments. That's all we're asking for, but you want to adopt the bill without even giving it any thought.
I repeat that nobody has said the bill is perfect. As the representative of a population of 150,000 people, I don't claim to know what is best for these people. They must be heard. That's part of the democratic process. It's a matter of listening to people, consulting the experts, meeting the individuals affected and hearing about any problems we can foresee. In all honesty, we can't think of everything; we're only human beings.
We have to work together, without arrogance, without claiming to know it all, without claiming that everything is fine and there aren't any problems, without rushing things on the pretext that the deadline is approaching. Otherwise this is a complete lack of respect for the legislative process.
We were elected to Parliament to ensure that the best possible bills are passed. That's our duty. But this motion does not allow us to do our duty. You're saying it's perfect, there aren't any problems, you can pass the bill, when absolutely no one says it's perfect. You have to admit it.
Thank you.