Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you to committee members.
We still have some time left for additional committee business. I'm going to begin by reporting back to committee.
Mr. Fergus, if you'll permit me, I'll just deal with reporting back the results that came about from the motion adopted at the last meeting and then I'll take speakers. I see your hand up, and I also have Mr. Brassard, who is in the room.
I wish to report back that, pursuant to the motion adopted at the last meeting, we asked to call both Minister Duclos and the chief public health officer of Canada, Theresa Tam. Dr. Tam declined the invitation through the department, which is why she does not appear in the notice of meeting that came out on Thursday. That invitation was declined.
Minister Duclos accepted. I did my best to try to schedule a meeting at the earliest possible time that he could reasonably appear. That was not until this Thursday, but I did what I could, pursuant to what I had said at committee in response to Mr. Brassard's request to arrange that as soon as possible.
That is where we are. A draft work plan has been circulated to committee members, which contains possible witnesses. I don't want to discuss that because it deals with private individuals and it's not the custom of committee to discuss that business in public, although we are certainly able to talk about our schedule in terms of how many meetings we have. The work plan suggests the next six meetings to hear witnesses on this important study.
With that, I will go to Mr. Fergus and then Mr. Brassard.