Thank you very much.
I appreciate the opportunity to have some direction on where we go as a committee from here. I think there is a lot of common ground between the parties on a lot of the parts of Bill C-16, but as we've discussed today in our interventions with the minister and with the justice department officials, there are a few very key areas that I think need some more clarity. I would love to go into clause-by-clause having done a lot of the work up front. That, as we've seen on previous bills that have come before this committee, is very important.
I've seen the witnesses who have been proposed by all parties. There are a lot of witnesses. I'm not convinced that we will be able to get through them adequately in five meetings. I would propose an amendment—and I hope we can find some unanimous agreement here—to replace “five meetings with witnesses on March 25, April 13, April 15, April 20 and April 22, 2026” with “nine further meetings”. We do not take a position as to the timing of those. If we need to sit on break weeks, that's obviously an option. That would give us time to get through all of the witnesses who have been put forward by all parties.
That's the amendment. I'd note the size of the bill. It's 170 pages. It is quite substantive, and I want to make sure we're covering the issues.