Thank you. I don't want to disagree with my new friend over there.
This committee is very new. I know one thing about members of Parliament—we know all the answers, and then we're going to jump into a big study. I think it would be a big mistake to say, “Well, we could hear from the Privacy Commissioner, and then we're going to handle all the important stuff.”
What the Privacy Commissioner does is cutting edge. It's been recognized around the world what this office has done. To give them an hour, I'm sorry, is wasting our time, because the number of questions that are going to be asked is going to be very limited. It's the same with Mr. Dion. He is really trying to reshape this.
This is not to disrespect the Commissioner of Lobbying, because we're going to need time to deal with the Lobbying Act—it's going to be very important—or the Information Commissioner, but there are two portfolios right now that I'm asking my colleagues for. I've been up to speed, and I have met with them a hundred times, but they really are going to lay the groundwork for us. If we don't take the time now, I think we're going to waste a lot of time in committee arguing about what we should and shouldn't be doing, when they will help lay out some ground rules. So, I think it's reasonable to take two hours to hear from each of them, because we're still going to take time to develop our witness list for facial recognition.
This is not going to be a straightforward thing. We're going to need to get the right people. We need to do this in a proper manner. We can jump in, but there are still going to be gaps. I would appeal to my colleagues to give them the time, to let the clerks figure it out, and we'll start putting our witness list together and we'll get down to business.