If I go back to the discussion we had in the subcommittee and the rationale for this, which Mr. Blaikie just outlined, I agree with Mr. Blaikie: When the budget gets introduced, it's important that this committee allocate the time to study it, I believe. That's one of our key responsibilities.
The inflation study is also very important. I think that we have dedicated a lot of meetings to it, and I know that more meetings are coming, but I think it's important that we get to the budget.
What's in the subcommittee report that was agreed to doesn't stipulate the specifics. It doesn't speak to the size of the budget. It's not depending on the size of the budget, as Mr. Fast was alluding to, or the complexity, or anything like that. All it's saying is that when the budget gets presented, we should get to it as soon as possible.
From my vantage point, the reason for this is that it's something essential that this committee does. Certainly, I don't know what's in the budget, but I do know that every budget that's introduced is important to Canadians on a range of issues, so I wouldn't want our committee to delay in any way its movement on the budget.
I think we can do justice to the inflation issue by continuing that study as we have been, but we also have to make time for the budget. I think that's what this was meant to reflect.