I think October 22 would work because we're going to get a lot of submissions. We consulted extensively over the summer. We got 26,000 briefs, and we met with 300 indigenous communities, I believe. A lot of work has already been done. Communities are engaged. The bill came out last week, so people know about it. We just need to give the analysts time to go through the reports and submissions, and ourselves a bit of time to read them as well. I think October 22 is probably a good date if we stick with that. I am ready and we are ready to see what the committee wants to do.
I think the three most important things to agree on today are the deadline for the witness list, including a preliminary list today, another date next week and the press release—whether it's October 22. I think we can deal with the rest when we meet on October 19. We can revisit the deadlines then, because we'll know who the witnesses are and the briefs will have started coming in. That's my suggestion.
I appreciate that my opposition colleagues want an hour each, but we have a limited amount of time. We're talking about 20 hours or so of meetings, even though we haven't set specific parameters. There is some flexibility. With about 20 hours, we won't have that much time left to hear from witnesses if we spend four hours with the ministers.
That's what I think.