Madam Chair, I believe the benefit of a public hearing such as would be presented by calling witnesses to this committee is that it affirms the credibility of the process, and the voices that want to be heard will be heard.
As you know, there was a formal process that made a number of conclusions. The previous minister deferred consideration of it because of a number of concerns that were raised. The current minister has also deferred consideration, which I believe is a good step. But the bottom line, now that it has gone through the formal review process and is awaiting a decision from the minister—she's taking into account additional factors, I assume—is that there's no other formal public forum within which this issue can be discussed.
I believe that Mr. Cullen has rightly raised the fact that this forum here—I believe he's suggesting one meeting—is one that is public and residents across Canada can see the proceedings. I'm assuming that this would be televised. It just reaffirms the credibility of the process. I was going to use the word “restores”, but I'm not sure that the credibility of the process has been damaged. It's just that this will reaffirm, for those people who are still concerned about this issue, that all the due diligence has been done and that the science backs up the decision that will be made down the road.
We'll be supporting it.