Madam Speaker, first, of course, I am prepared to have witnesses appear before the committee. I will not chair the meeting. I will be one of the members, voicing my opinion on this matter. If I am asked today whether I want witnesses to appear, I would say of course. I want, for example, to hear from the Official Languages Commissioner, and perhaps the president of the Public Service Commission. There are others, no doubt. Perhaps members want to hear from prominent legal experts, to name just one example.
We are prepared to hear from these witnesses. In light of the testimony of such experts, if they talk about how to improve the bill, we should also be prepared to heed their advice, naturally. If we seek criticism, the ultimate goal is to improve the bill, if need be. I cannot pretend to speak for the senator. That is not my role today.
In any event, when the bill is before the House it is up to the House to decide, not the person who sponsored the bill and had the decision-making power in the first place. Nonetheless, I know that the senator is a very reasonable person. Knowing him as well as I do, I know that if someone were to present him with amendments to improve his bill and he sincerely believed this would make his bill better, he would not be so vain as to say that what he did in the past could not be improved. I know him well enough to know that he is not like that.
We want the bill to be good, not only so that we can be proud of it on a personal level, but so that it will be good legislation for Canadians. That is what we are all here for in the House of Commons and in Parliament in general.
Let us hear from witnesses, and at third reading we will vote for or against the final product. It is quite possible that the final product will be identical to what we have today. We shall see. Time will tell. I agree with the member opposite. Like him, I would not want to hastily move on to third reading and pass a bill that we do not want.