Thank you, Chair.
When I originally proposed the motion, I included travel to Vancouver for at least some of the hearings, because it is very important to people in Vancouver.
As I said at the time, this is a national cultural institution based in Vancouver, and as far as I know, there aren't any other national cultural institutions based there. I think it is important to go there to hear from people, and to allow people in the community to be present at those hearings as well, even if they're not testifying before us. That would be a respectful thing to do for that community that has no other national cultural institution based there. I think this question is of very particular interest to people in the Metro Vancouver area.
That being said, if the Liaison Committee denied us, and given your record, Chair, it seems very likely.... Given the parliamentary secretary's statement, it sounds like it might be very likely that they will deny us. We should try, but if they deny us, then video conferencing sounds like a good idea to me, or bringing people to Ottawa.
As somebody from the west coast of Canada, I know there is a big carbon footprint for travelling across the country. But if we deny Canadians from the west coast the ability to come to Ottawa and make the connections that other Canadians who live closer to Ottawa can enjoy all the time, to see the operation of Parliament, I think we are getting into serious problems about our democracy. I don't want to say that we should always be doing video conferencing. I think there is great value in allowing Canadians to come here to make their presentations, to meet other parliamentarians, to meet other people who are presenting on various issues. If we deny that consistently to people from the west coast of Canada, and people from other parts of the country as well, we are making a very serious mistake.
It seems to me that there are some very key places that are organized around this. Toronto seems to be well organized. Vancouver certainly is. Maybe Toronto would make sense for us to visit as well. But I think we should go out of our way to bring people here from other parts of the country and to have those hearings here, Chair. I do think we have to be careful about how we make these kinds of decisions on who we're letting in and leaving out because of where we happen to come from in the country.
That's what I have to say for now.