I pass. This motion is highly premature and I will not support it. I certainly encourage my colleagues to defer it, which would be best, so that the committee can deal with it appropriately, but if the government is in a rush to have me concur in this, then they won't have my concurrence.
I don't have a difficulty in studying something before making a decision. We've had one session where we had witnesses who were not able to connect and talk to each other. And I have a ton of questions as to whether or not we should even consider this. I'm quite prepared to listen, but I have questions in terms of what the magnitude is, and I can't just rely on a document. I don't know what Mr. Fast has read and where he got it, but I'd want to have some witnesses here, and we should have a thorough examination of the issue, including what the consequences are of affecting the exclusive privilege of Canada Post. We haven't even touched that.
So I will not participate in what could become the dismantling of the exclusive privilege if it could affect first class mail delivery across the country, especially in rural Canada. That affirmation has been made here and it hasn't been rebutted. We need to hear from Canada Post. We need to hear from the remailers. We need to hear from our research staff in terms of the law. We need to have a sense of what's going on around the world.
There are all kinds of things that we were throwing around during the one-hour session we had with them that I've not had a chance to get answers to, and I think this is jumping the gun. It may be that we may want to come to this conclusion. I suspect not, but I certainly can't do that today.