Mr. Chair, I wasn't finished. I was just starting to question. My apologies.
I'm not categorically opposed to travelling to various parts of the country to better understand the television and the film industry. For me, the timing is poor. We've just started our work on the Hill.
We, as government MPs who don't have ministerial responsibilities, sit on two committees. We're getting our feet wet. Quite a number of us are rookies. I don't have enough time right now to get all the things done that I need to get done. On top of that is quite an ambitious government agenda. If you cobble all of those together, for me there's a problem there.
On top of all of that, we have the optics. I wouldn't classify this as a junket; the public will likely classify it as a junket, especially so soon after the election.
I understand the sentiments, and I understand what the purpose of this trip would be. I just want to be very careful. At this point in time, I would not be supporting this particular trip simply because I personally have lots of work to do and I believe we can get the same amount of work achieved here.
I know that not all the same people will be able to come here, but to send 12 people or even half the committee, six people, to Banff, I'm not sure is the best investment of taxpayers' money right now.