—small-l, yes, very small—that is not clear, not prescriptive, and a place that gives us the opportunity here to continue to operate in the way in which we're operating.
Again, I don't know if the senator was in the room. Just to recap, I concede that we might not be the appropriate place to determine the legality of invoking the emergency act. I agree to that point. But on the first two points, it is absolutely contingent that we go to the preconditions and that we explore the failures of public safety frameworks. Ultimately, the decision to invoke a national emergency act requires the breakdown of previous levels of government and requires the inability to adequately deal with the matters at hand.
As we work through this work plan, again, I really implore members around this table to give this the breadth that it's going to need, to unpack in a public way and to provide socio-political commentary on something that goes beyond just the legalese of whether or not invoking the act was constitutionally sound. Quite frankly, when this was drafted, I don't think this situation was ever contemplated, so regardless of who's dealing with that in the judicial inquiry, I don't think they are going to be able to come up with an answer that meets the socio-political times of the moment. That's how fragile this is.
I know that I have taken up some time on this, but I need to underscore, as somebody who supported this thing, how important it is that I go back to my community and let them know that at this committee, we provided the full opportunity for a complete and thorough and careful analysis of what happened.