Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for coming today.
I apologize for showing up only at the end. I had to speak to Bill C-31 in the House. I wanted to talk about the Defence Investment Agency act and the changes to the Defence Production Act, which does provide, if you have a chance to read it through, some powers to the minister that will limit competition on bids. It will give the minister power to reduce the ability of some companies.... They can be disqualified by the minister without giving any reasons. The minister is essentially given immunity from any possible litigation or challenges as to why he would disqualify someone or rig the competition process by moving all sorts of exemptions. It's one thing to use a national security exemption with proper reasoning, because of the time we're in, with conflict and great operational requirements; it's quite another to disqualify companies because they don't want them to bid. It's two different streams that we have to be concerned about.
First and foremost, have any of our witnesses had a chance to read division 16 of the budget implementation act, number two, which is Bill C-31?