Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. I’m going to answer the question on the legislation and permit myself not to engage in what every parliamentarian or citizen of Canada understood was at stake in the vote yesterday. It would be inconceivable to me that were the vote to have been lost in the House yesterday, that the members of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition would say, “We still think the government deserves to stay in power.” But I digress.

To your question, the government recognizes and has recognized the need, as a prudent government would, that the instruments regulating financial transactions and the reporting of them have simply not kept pace with technological and other changes in the ways in which assets are moved around. Money — even the definition of money, to invoke cryptocurrency but also to invoke the ways in which money is raised through crowdfunding, et cetera . . .

Recognizing this and having put into place a temporary measure to deal with this crisis is responsibly saying, “You know what? We need to do this.” I have no knowledge, honourable senators — I just don’t know — what their plans are or what the times of their plans are. I sound like I’m in Question Period. When I know and it’s appropriate to share, and when the government’s intentions are known, they will be circulated.

I want to underline that the question of what we learn, what measures the government chooses to propose and what we in Parliament choose to adopt constitute a completely separate question. Just as the Government of Ontario is reconsidering some of its emergency laws — and all provinces are reconsidering them, as one must do — so, too, shall we. When the time comes and when we receive the bill in whatever form it will be, we will study it, review it, send it to committee and we will make sure it’s the best bill to serve Canadians that can be.

Thank you.