My recollection was that we had a work plan that we had all agreed to, and that included the minister showing up on Wednesday, which is the last possible day for him to appear to report the main estimates back to the House. Then I heard late on Friday that he's apparently not available. I'm not sure what's transpired here, but it's rather remarkable.
Chair, could I then raise the question here about who would come? I think offline you informed me--at least, in a discussion just moments ago, for those who did not hear it--that the deputy minister is not available to attend on Wednesday. I think from our side here the official opposition strongly supports the notion of having officials here on Wednesday.
I have a personal concern here, as a member, that we look at potentially four speakers speaking for ten minutes each out of the two-hour session. That seriously encroaches on time for questions, and for answers, and I would propose instead that there be a single overview or presentation made by the associate deputy, Mr. Shugart, I understand, on behalf of the three other agencies, even though the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy does not report to the Minister of the Environment and ought not to be reporting to the Minister of the Environment. It's a PCO-based institution, not a part of Environment Canada. I'm not sure why it's even on this list, for that matter.
But hopefully my colleagues would agree that maybe a 10-minute overview from the associate deputy would be sufficient so we could have the time we would probably like to have to ask those questions.