Hon. Scott Tannas: Honourable senators, for the edification of everyone here, there was mention of a pre-study and a rejection of that notion. Just so that everybody is clear, the bill arrived here on Monday; the suggestion of a pre-study was raised on Tuesday; it’s now Thursday. In that time frame, we had the ministers here and the agreement of everybody. We asked the National Finance Committee to hold a hearing and bring as many witnesses as they could, to listen to concerns and to provide us with a report, of which they have done yeoman’s work.

The answer to this problem was not to do a pre-study on Tuesday and Wednesday. The answer to this problem, in my humble opinion, is for us, through the government leader, to provide guidance to the House of Commons on when it is they need to get bills here if they expect them to pass within a certain amount of time.

It was done before quite smoothly. We have heard in various conversations about Senator Carstairs, who stood up to her masters in the House of Commons and said, “If you don’t have a bill here by X date, don’t lean on us to rush through it.” That is the kind of thing that will solve this problem, not a pre-study notion on a Tuesday and some different result than what we have here on a Thursday. Thank you.