It's not my intention to distract any further from the testimony before us, but the motion was given notice. I am here today because I originally raised the matter at the health committee, which has said that committee is not responsible for this federal intervention in the hospital location. I'm here today because the health committee would not hear the discussion.
The reality is, this is now a matter under the control of the National Capital Commission, for which this committee is responsible. The member is quite right that normally no federal government would be involved in the location of a hospital, but your government has decided to involve itself, and there's now a federal process under way, under the direction of the heritage minister, studying 12 different locations in the national capital region.
Again, I wish I weren't here, and I wish we didn't have to have this conversation. I don't believe that the NCC, the heritage minister, or frankly the environment minister, should be involved in this matter, but they are. They have involved themselves. As a member of Parliament who represents 100,000 people who will be affected by this decision, and given that the federal government has appropriated the decision to itself, I have an obligation to get the facts, and that's why I've come before this committee.