Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's always a pleasure to be here.

I'll just set the stage for what I hope will be some productive dialogue, either in a formal or informal stance going forward.

Here's where we are right now: A programming motion was put forward by Mr. Turnbull that would substantially limit the amount of debate and discussion on the budget. The budget is a 600-plus-page document, and I don't find it unreasonable at all that it requires sufficient debate. As discussed earlier and suggested by the Liberals, the NDP and, of course, the Conservatives, it is one of the most important documents a government can put forward in a given year. Mr. Davies raised that issue as well when he said we need some more debate. That's one of the issues with this document.

Also, we are well behind the eight ball with respect to money laundering, which has been highlighted by the recent discussion of TD Bank's anti-money laundering protection issues. We definitely need to accomplish some work on studying money laundering. It is completely four-square within the finance committee's mandate to study the anti-money laundering act, as we were asked to do by the Deputy Prime Minister more than a year ago, I believe, so we need to get on with that work.

Finally, the Conservatives have called for Mark Carney to appear as a witness. Mr. Carney, of course, was governor of the Bank of Canada and governor of the Bank of England and is organizing to be the next leader of the Liberal Party. All of that, I believe, is in the public domain and has been reported.

Those are some of the issues that the Conservatives need to get resolved.

The final issue is that, as said, the amount of debate and discussion is being severely limited and curtailed so that clause-by-clause consideration will end at the beginning of June. We all know that things can change and that information could come up with regard to the 600-page budget document. Putting that cap on the study of a 600-page document when significant issues have come up before—such as the SNC-Lavalin affair, in which a deferred prosecution agreement was placed in a large omnibus budget bill and unfortunately wasn't caught until well after the fact—means that due diligence is required there as well.

However, in the spirit of collaboration, Conservatives would like to see us moving forward, and although this proposal doesn't represent the entire solution, hopefully it does move us in the direction of a much-needed study of this budget.

I'll be seeking unanimous consent to, one, withdraw the subamendment moved by Marty Morantz and, two, invite Mark Carney to testify on Bill C-69 by himself for no less than two hours. I think we can make substantial progress if we get unanimous consent on that.

Philip Lawrence

$492,727.00