Yes, I'd encourage Canadians, who may take in these proceedings also, to direct their inquiries through the clerk's office.
I believe the deadline for making applications to appear is August 11, and the deadline for submissions or briefs to be brought forward is September 5. I encourage you, as we should encourage all our colleagues, to make sure that interested groups or individuals are made aware of the opportunity that they have to be part of this process.
I think the process will be very worthwhile, as it has been in the past, and will hopefully allow all of us to benefit and, through the most effective use of our time, produce a report that is of the greatest value to Canada and Canadians.
I'll close by offering a personal thank you to all committee members. As you're aware, it's been a number of years since I've chaired anything, and I really appreciate the support and encouragement committee members have offered to me. I thank you for that.
I must tell you that I'm very impressed with the quality of the people who have been on this committee, and who have taken part in it. Frankly, I believe we have a unique opportunity right now, because the partisanship that has sometimes shadowed previous committees, with proximity to the next federal election and so on, has often tended to influence the degree to which committee work is effective. I think we have an opportunity right now to work to genuinely put together some real proposals in the coming weeks and months that this government will be encouraged to act on as a result of this focused effort and the teamwork that we've demonstrated at this point in time. I thank you for that.
I want to wish all of you a tremendous summer, and to you and your families and your staff, I say enjoy yourselves, relax, get rested up, because we have a lot of work to do in the fall.