There are two things. First, I don't know about the availability situation, but I thought tomorrow morning or later today might be a good idea. The only reason is that once the subcommittee meets, it starts the ball rolling in terms of the clerk's ability to start inviting witnesses.
My suspicion is that in that initial list of witnesses, which the parties have all submitted, there will be some clear common ground, people who are clearly the ones we'd like to get started first. Some of them—not all of them, but some of them—are located within a couple of hours' drive or within Ottawa itself.
If we were to get together next week, as you've said, with President Obama coming, there will be a number of MPs in town. Our first committee meeting with witnesses could actually be struck within the week, because normally when committees do those first couple of meetings, there is a certain pro forma group of witnesses we could see.
That was my suggestion. If the steering committee could get together even sooner than that—