Mr. Speaker, let us start by saying that the hon. member was not on committee and was never at any of the hearings, so I reject the vast majority of her question.
Regarding this idea that the committee did not hear from witnesses, the fact of the matter is that for almost every one of the suggested amendments, there was a group of witnesses on one side saying that we should be tougher and another group of witnesses on the other side saying that it should be easier. We struck a balance somewhere in between. Certainly we had the opportunity to hear a variety of witnesses across the board.
When it came to hearing amendments, there were several amendments moved by the opposition. Someone mentioned 18, but I cannot remember what the number was. Many of them were redundant, in that many of them were the same amendment moved in different areas. In several cases, I remember that the member's own party moved amendments that did not make any sense and had to withdraw those amendments before they were even debated at committee.
Certainly we had the opportunity to hear the experts from Industry Canada weigh in on the legislation and give very well-reasoned arguments about why the legislation was the way it was. I think we came forward with a piece of legislation that would make PIPEDA stronger than it has ever been.