Thank you, Chair.
Before you start the clock, I will just say publicly thank you for being here as department officials in person. This is one of the first times this has occurred, other than when we have had the ministers, and it says a lot about your willingness to be heard and to be open to what it is that we're doing. Thank you very much for doing that.
Deputy Minister Daigle, I just want to make a comment about your opening remarks. You indicated that the invocation was necessary because the existing laws basically were inadequate. This is not a question but a comment. I suggest that the existing laws were inadquately applied more than anything else.
Let me get into the questions. The Emergencies Act is clear, as you mentioned, sir, that a national emergency is “an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature” that “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada. Given the number of laws we have in this country that could have addressed these protests, the federal government must have reached a very high threshold before invoking the emergency powers.
Can you state categorically, yes or no, that the government exercised every legislative option before invoking the Emergencies Act?