Thank you, Chair.
Good morning, colleagues.
I was looking at the clock. The last time I debated this motion, it was for less than 15 minutes, so I will follow that trend. I will keep it short today as well.
I've been listening a lot to my caucus colleagues as well as to my opposition colleagues on this motion. I would like to offer my observations and perhaps some suggestions. First of all, I'm sure that for Ms. Shanahan and other members who have been on this committee since the beginning of the session, there are times when it feels like we are deadlocked on the issues. To me, it's like a ball of tangled fishing line that we have to untangle before we can move on.
There were times that it felt hopeless, going back to last summer, on this specific topic, but eventually, through amendments, through discussions at the committee or in camera, things worked out. I think concessions were made by both the opposition and the governing party.
I like what I've seen here, the good intentions shown by Mr. Fergus. I also want to point out the fact that the Liberal House leader's office issued a statement or letter responding to Mr. Barrett's motion in the House. There is nothing inconsistent between that letter presented in the House to all members—it's an open letter—and exactly what happened following that letter. As for reporting back to the House, I guess the only thing we need to report on is that it was consistent. It was the government's statement of position from the beginning on this specific motion. That's why I agree that it could be included in the report at the end.
I also want to humbly remind everyone here that we had a choice of which study to move on, to discuss and to work on. I'm not going to talk about what happened in camera, but unfortunately we decided to move on this one, this particular motion. That's where we're stuck.
I used the weekend to reflect on the work I've done in the past week. I think it's time for us to think about it and see if we can work out a solution so that we can move on. There aren't a lot of meetings left before we hit another break. I strongly encourage my colleagues opposite to consider this amendment. Maybe there's another subamendment they want to propose, but I think that's a good intentioned solution for us to get out of this current situation
Thank you, Chair.