Yes, I think that this is what needs to be cleared up. Obviously, I don't think it's fair for the minister to be caught between “he said, he said”, but I have spoken to the minister and I think it would be important. We've asked many times for the minister to have provided to this committee in writing what he would like this committee to look into. I've told the minister and I've told all members opposite that I want to be helpful. I don't want to just be engaged in busywork right now, because what I've heard both from the provinces as well as from the federal minister is that at this point, there's not a lot that we could contribute to the discussion.
What I'd like to do is have this motion put to the side. We have witnesses here. I think it's important that we hear from the witnesses now that we have them here in the room, and defer this motion until another time. We'll have an opportunity to debate the motion and to figure out a schedule moving forward. There are a lot of motions that have been brought to this committee relating to a whole host of things. This isn't the only one, and the suggestion that we would spend the rest of the year looking at this gives all the impression of just engaging in busywork and not engaging in the things that producers have asked us to do.
Obviously, we would like to complete the study with regard to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We'd like to hear from farmers and commodity groups across the country. We've only started doing that. The Liberal members voted against completing that study and putting a report to the House last meeting. I'd like to have some understanding as to why it is that the Liberals want to do that.
We also have a number of other motions that have been brought forward by ourselves, by the NDP member as well, who hasn't been able to get back here yet. I think it's appropriate that if we're going to have a discussion about the planning of this committee, as the Liberals asked last committee meeting....
The Liberals took some offence at the fact that our NDP colleague brought a motion forward in the middle of committee hearings. They felt that we should do that in the context of a planning session, so let's do that. Let's be respectful to each side. Let's bring all of our ideas to the table and let's have members debate that another time. Let's hear from the witnesses right now and we'll figure all this out at a later meeting. I think it's inappropriate. I think it's disappointing. I think it was Speaker Milliken who talked about committees using their majority to overrule the minority and chastised committees for doing that.
Let's reflect on the fact that committees can be constructive. They can have people from all sides bring forward their ideas, and we can actually do things that producers across the country would expect us to do. It's not a single issue, as has been proposed. There are multiple issues that need to be discussed and we need to figure out when we can set some time aside to hear what all committee members' views are on this and proceed in that way.
I would encourage members opposite to put this motion aside for the time being, and let's hear from the witnesses. Let's hear the testimony and let's proceed in that way.