Thank you, Mr. Chair, and congratulations on your election. I'm, as you all know, a new member, a new member of the committee and a new member of of Parliament, and I just have a couple of questions about this notice of motion. I just received the email with the words “notice of motion”. Is it customary to get the notice of motion at the meeting?
I heard you say, Mr. Barlow, that you had spoken to people in advance on this. I'm just curious as to whether I missed something or whether this had been sent out in advance. That's my first question.
Secondly, and again excuse my ignorance because I'm new, but I'm wondering what the officials from the Department of Public Safety have to do with our committee, which I understand is about agriculture and agri-food.
Thirdly, I'm just wondering about—I don't know if it's the need or the wisdom—having the premier and the minister of agriculture from Prince Edward Island come at this stage. I'm expecting that the officials from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the potato board would have all of the pertinent information we would require as a committee on agriculture and agri-food, but once again I'm very new to this so these are all just questions that I'm wondering about in regard to process and procedure and who the committee normally calls as witnesses.
The last thing I'd like to say is that it does seem a lot to try to get a three-hour meeting by December 22. I'm wondering whether it makes sense to have these combined. These issues are quite different and quite separate and both of them, to me, seem to be very important and involved. I would appreciate your comments on that please.