Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's been a long time since I had the opportunity to speak to the committee. I feel like I'm sitting at a desk full of files that have been started, but will never be resolved, despite all the work that has been done in that direction. It's really sad.
I have been involved in parliamentary committees for 15 years. I've seen some difficult and complicated situations at times, but at least we've always been able to vote, and that was even if it took an hour, 10 hours or 40 hours to express the various points of view on a motion. We are adults, and we need to understand that we are going to have to vote on this motion.
It would be very unfortunate to waste all the meetings of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics until June because we disagree on the motion. You can express dissatisfaction by voting against the motion and you can express agreement by voting for the motion, but it's our duty to vote on this motion.
It's also our duty to do so as quickly as possible, because we're paid by the taxpayers, and they need us to work. They understand that we may disagree, but sooner or later they are going to demand that we vote and finish the work that is important to us.
I understand Mr. Fortin's frustration very well and I will not take half an hour to express that I also want us to vote and get to work. That's our goal and it's our job to finish what we started. If we don't, we will unfortunately lose all the testimony and all the work we have started, it will die on the Order Paper. We're going to go down in history as an excessively lazy committee, and frankly, that is heartbreaking. We could have changed some people's lives. However, right now, we're not making much of a difference because of the personal pride of some, and that really saddens me.
I will now give the floor to those who like to talk a lot.