Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary and I are both members of the Standing Committee on Finance.
Clearly, for a bill of this scope and importance, there was very little consultation and debate in the Standing Committee on Finance.
Other than the meeting we had with Department of Finance officials and, of course, the clause-by-clause meeting, we had the equivalent of two and a half meetings in committee to discuss a bill that will add, eliminate or amend 50 or so pieces of legislation.
Clearly this was not enough time to do a thorough study. Moreover, the superficial study carried out in other committees did not meet the need for careful consideration of this bill.
However, the independence of crown corporations, in particular the Bank of Canada, was raised in committee in relation to the proposed amendments in division 17.
I would like the parliamentary secretary to comment on this. We wanted to have a special meeting to consider the question of the independence of the Bank of Canada and its impact, but the Conservatives refused.
I would like her to explain to the House why the Conservatives refused to study this specific issue of the independence of the Bank of Canada.