Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
As has often become the case, I think, you have the members from the governing party who are quick to say that there's important work that needs to be accomplished, yet they seem to be the ones taking up the lion's share of the discussion.
Mr. Chair, I'll keep my comments very brief, and I hope we can then in short order get to a vote on both the amendment and the motion.
I certainly feel that it's important to press “pause” to ensure that Canadians can have confidence in their government and that their privacy is being respected. I appreciate the fact that Ms. Saks read into the record the appendix from some of the information that was shared with this committee this morning. I saw the letter from Mr. van Koeverden, and I had a chance to briefly go through the information from BlueDot. I have far more questions today than I did an hour before this meeting when preparing for further discussion. I think the fact that there's a private corporation that's been brought into the mix here simply begs more questions than there are answers.
Ms. Saks read in some of the information about how the data was handled. That's all fine and well, but I would encourage Ms. Saks and all members of this committee to chat with their constituents and see how they feel about their information being used in the way that she read into the record, and that has been outlined in the slide deck presented to us by the parliamentary secretary.
Mr. Chair, I would simply say this: Canadians deserve answers on this. Certainly, I think it is only fair and right in the spirit of good governance and collaboration on this committee to simply say, “Let's pause this procurement,” so that Canadians can in fact have confidence at a time when there has been, certainly from what I'm hearing, an erosion of trust that has much to do with government, whether related to COVID response or otherwise.
I would encourage this committee to move forward. Let's get to the important work that has to be done. The Liberals seem to say that, and now is their opportunity to demonstrate it.