First of all, I would definitely support such an approach. If my colleague has seen a budget, I, for one, have not. I do not know therefore what figures he is referring to.
Secondly, it is not uncommon for a committee to travel to some convention outside of Ottawa. This happens regularly, particularly when the meeting in question is directly related to a subject being studied by the committee.
I had a preliminary discussion with the Banff Television Festival's director, who told me it would be a pleasure to coordinate the meetings. We could go to Banff for three or four days and have a series of meetings we could all participate in, meet with independent producers and Telefilm Canada, who are usually there. In fact, we could meet with all the people we would like to speak to both formally and informally. It is a beehive of activity involving the people in the industry.
I am back on this committee after a three-year absence. I have to get up to speed, and it would be the ideal opportunity for the new members of our committee who wish to do so to see these people over three or four days. These are full working days, it is not a vacation.