Madam Speaker, I appreciate the words of my colleague from Lévis. He and I have had many discussions on small and large businesses. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we disagree, but at least we have a good debate and try to put our best efforts forward.
When the member brings his amendments to the industry committee I hope they are to improve the bill and not marginalize it. I welcome that. I welcome his debate.
The member has been on the industry committee for a long time now. I have forgotten how many years, because we have both been there for a number of years. When we put forward Bill C-21, the extension for one year of the SBLA, in the springtime the commitment was made by the minister and the department to make sure that the new bill would be tabled as early as possible.
The objective of the industry committee was to hear from as many witnesses as possible. The stakeholders of the bill would be present to make their efforts known to the committee. The objective was to have a good industry committee discussion on the bill and on amendments that could be brought forward from the stakeholders to make sure that when the bill came back to the House it would be a bill that we would all be pleased with, not one that we would delay and then have a crunch later on.
Could the member who has been a member of the industry committee for a long time expand on that.