Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here today, Mr. Beatty, to help give us insight into this act.
As you pointed out, the act had never been invoked prior to this. The last time the act was invoked, in its previous iteration—the War Measures Act—was about 52 years ago, in October 1970. This is clearly an exceptional situation. As you know, we're here to find out just how far we can go in our examination and to determine how we should proceed.
Inlight of your remarks today, Mr. Beatty, and comments the committee has heard to date, we could call the Emergencies Act the heavy artillery of Canadian legislation, so to speak. Do you agree with me that it's the sledgehammer in the government's legislative toolkit when it comes to dealing with exceptional situations?