Thank you, Chair.
It's by pure coincidence that I showed up today.
If memory serves me correctly, in 2020 I moved a similar motion. I now have the text in front of me, and I will just share it. I'm sure that the members of this committee will find it amusing.
It was November 16, 2020, and I moved:
That the committee
—this committee—
study ways to further protect Canada’s democratic and electoral institutions from cyber and non-cyber interference. including studying how new domestic and international stakeholders, as well as other orders of government, can work together to strengthen Canada’s whole-of-society preparedness, resilience and civic engagement in the face of evolving threats to democracy.
The NDP permanent member at the time was Mr. Angus. He responded that:
Mr. Dong's motion does not belong at our committee. When Minister Gould brought issues of electoral protection, she did not send that to the ethics committee; she sent it, I believe, probably to PROC. Electoral issues have nothing to do with our committee.
Later he added that:
Just so we don't waste any more time, I believe the issue of election preparedness is something that is under the mandate of PROC. Could you determine if that's the case, so that we're not tying up our committee with something that is not within our mandate?
That was his question to the chair.
What I want to ask the current chair is, what are your thoughts on whether or not it fits in the mandate of this committee?
Thank you.