Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
As I, with good intentions, mangled the analogy about not having a horse in the race, I think that as a committee we have to get to the completion of some of our studies. I'm very aware of the timelines until the end of the session. I am not interested in going down every rabbit hole that comes before this committee. I'm also not of the mind that there's such an urgency on this particular study that it must be completed in sequence right now. I say that to say that I do think that this is a study that requires greater depth and longer analysis.
I will share with you—and it's not to the detriment or to the character of the witnesses who were present—that we need to get to a place where subject matter experts are willing to provide us with recommendations. We need to start to find the types of people who will take political positions on providing recommendations, whether it's using global comparators or academic research or whether it's using subject matter expertise from the industry, because I think that as a committee, in light of an election, we need to get this right.
I'm even willing—and I share this with my Conservative counterparts so that they understand where I'm coming from—to say that this needs to be extended. I don't necessarily agree that it has to be next week. I don't agree that it has to take the order of precedence, but I think that we do have to get to better results, better recommendations and better clarity.
Mr. Chair, I'm not a huge fan of chasing a new thing and a new headline every week and doing the same thing in three or four committees. I say, only partially in jest, that having the same people at the same committees saying the same thing is not a great use of our time. Taxpayer resources are our mandate within the course of this committee.
With that said, vote by vote on all the issues that are brought before this committee, I will determine my vote based on that, knowing that regardless of whatever decision I make, some folks are going to say I'm complicit here, I'm there or I'm going to end up on somebody's fundraiser. I don't care. I just know that what we're trying to do in this committee is the right thing for the good and welfare of people.
I will say that yes, I support an extended version. I would also say that if that happened in September, I would be okay with that. If that meant we went out and got the world's best subject matter experts on this issue who could come in, educate us, inform the general public and provide strong recommendations that we could report, that's where I would go. I'm not doing this so that we're bumping off other things that could be dealt with at this committee between now and the summer.
That's the context in which I'll be making all my decisions on a move-forward basis, vote by vote.