I have some suggestions for the chair here. I hope you'll take it in a friendly way.
I think there are a number of questions that need to be asked of the witnesses as they come forward, and that should be previously given to them by this committee.
The question we're really trying to get answered is whether we should have a memorial day versus a statutory holiday. I'm concerned that we're having a number of witnesses come, and we won't be able to answer these important questions that are going to impact this private member's bill and whether it will be going forward.
We also need to answer the question of the balance between lifting people up and the idea of a memorial day. Can we do both? We need to ensure that we hear from survivors, youth, chiefs, women and men; from not only indigenous communities but also from non-indigenous communities.
Specifically, we're very concerned about a date. I think it's going to be very hard for the committee to come to a consensus if we don't hear dates, especially in testimony here.
We need the groups that come to demonstrate not simply an overall vision of why this is important. We also need specifics, because that's what we're actually dealing with in this. We need to hear the direction that they want, recognizing that we as parliamentarians also suffer under some terrible constraints. We have a time constraint coming up. There is an election in a very short time, bills have to be done in a certain period of time—45 days, I believe—and we have to vote on it in the House of Commons.
If we haven't answered those questions, it's going to be very hard for parties on both sides of the aisle to come to a consensus. It could lead to more division, cabinet voting one way, caucus voting another, opposition voting one way and splits. This is not what this bill should be about.
Also, I think there's a large constraint: we need to hear from businesses, because there are concerns about businesses involved in this and what a statutory holiday or a memorial day...the balance between culture and what we do.
Those are some of the questions I would pose not only to you but to the witnesses. I think it's very important that when people do come here, they've done a lot of work with the people in their organizations to give us those answers. It's nice to spend time discussing the importance, but a lot of us already recognize the importance. Today I've heard everyone discuss how we want to, but we're asking questions about how and what measures we should use.