As my colleague from Laval Centre just said, it is because it is totally disingenuous. It is also because if members of the committee had given their unanimous consent for this amendment to be ruled in order, it could have been accepted as such by the committee.
One can bend over backwards to try to justify such a decision. One can invoke all kinds of legal arguments and cite all kinds of precedents when looking for an excuse to avoid doing something.
Obviously, in the case at hand, the government was not interested, far from it, in doing anything whatsoever on this issue.
The Brewers Association of Canada wrote a letter to the chair of the committee, giving its opinion on the inclusion of microbreweries in Bill C-47 with regard to a possible exemption.
In the last paragraph, the Brewers Association of Canada pointed out that it totally supported such an exemption for microbreweries, but it clearly stated that, in light of its prior agreement with the government, it could not support including it in Bill C-47.
We certainly have good reason to be concerned about this type of agreement between the Brewers Association of Canada and the government.