I'm just going to propose that the first part of next Tuesday's meeting, say the first hour, be devoted to having the officials in here and then to dealing with the bill clause by clause. To my understanding, I'd like to hear the official line that they're not ready. We've already heard from Mr. MacKenzie that the government is not putting money into this right now, so it can't proceed in the House, in any event, without that royal recommendation, and we don't have it here at committee.
At that point, we could deal with the clause-by-clause afterwards. If in fact what happens after that is we empty the bill—I don't know, but that's one of the things that could happen—then I believe there's some rule, and I'd like the clerk to verify this for Tuesday where we could give reasons why we have emptied the bill, and then that would go back to the House.
So that does give the message, Mr. Comartin, that we could do this.
We could do this today, but I'm very uncomfortable, on behalf of my colleagues who supported this bill, in dealing with it on just the basis of the private member's bill, because you've made this larger than yourself. So I think we have to hear from the officials. I think we do have the time. At first I was concerned that we wouldn't have the time, but we do have that meeting open and I think we can deal with it on Tuesday.