Before the question is put, I would like to address a brief comment to Mr. Petit.
Mr. Petit, I speak to you all due respect. Congratulations on your election victory in your riding.
I have been a member of the House of Commons for 13 years. First of all, generally speaking, standing committees like the Finance Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, which are relatively important committees, meet on average for six hours a week. We are proposing ten hours per week.
Secondly, you referred to jobs. You probably meant assignments or additional responsibilities. I am sorry, but I think that every day, at 2 p.m., there is question period, for yourself as is the case for the rest of us. We keep that time for question period.
I also believe that, in theory, your party would have a caucus meeting on Wednesday. We can therefore not have a meeting on Wednesday during caucus. In principle, I believe that on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, after 5:30 p.m., there will be votes in the House of Commons on bills that your government will table. And so I do not believe it will be easy for the committee to sit while votes are being held in the House of Commons, because we cannot do so.
Moreover, I am convinced, because you are a professional, that before hearing from the witnesses you will read the excellent information on them that will be sent to us by the Library of Parliament. If you are sitting here 40 hours a week, when will you read the research documents, when will you do the debriefing on the witnesses that you have heard, and when will you prepare your amendments?
I am sorry, but I find it hard to accept being told that we are lazy because we do not want to spend more time sitting on this committee. I wanted to share that with you most respectfully.