Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I find it very troubling that we had officials just here, who could have stayed for clause-by-clause, suddenly logging off and giving the rationale that they weren't needed today. We all had the ability to submit witnesses. We planned to do this in an orderly way with two meetings. All parties agreed to that. We all got the chance to put forward witnesses.
Mr. Chair, this will delay the work of the committee. You know better than anyone that we have several different motions that have been referred to this committee, many of them Liberal, and they will be pushing other things back.
As the House of Commons has given this to us to do, I would simply ask all members who are concerned about not being able to get to the important work the House has sent to us.... Out of respect for the House that sent this to us, I believe we should vote this out. We've had industry. We've had environmental groups. We've had the government itself come and talk about its policies. We all agreed to a two-step process.
I would ask all members to vote against this motion. I'm very disappointed that this was done with no consultation. Obviously, since the member read it out, he has had this for quite some time. To not be consulting with other party members or other parties I think really just shows that the member didn't do his homework at the correct time to work with other parties to have an orderly schedule where everyone's concerns could be made out.