Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yes, I agree. If it was to go to the subcommittee to further this discussion, I can't see it really changing much. We've discussed this long enough. We've had a good back and forth with a number of amendments. I think it is clear, in my opinion, after hearing from others, what the intent of this is.
The issue may be that some may not want to have this hearing or to hear from those who I'm proposing we hear from. But I think that's.... I mean, I've had a request. I've brought it forward to this committee. If others want to add specific people to hear from during that two-hour committee, make that suggestion now. I'm hearing that there aren't specific people or delegations to be heard from. I do have a very specific stakeholder group and I've put that out there to the committee. The committee has heard that.
I'm not sure if going to the subcommittee.... Again, I'm quite open. If the committee feels it's going to be more productive to push this to the subcommittee for further discussion or clarification--if that would be useful--then I'm all for that. However, I am not thinking that will be the outcome. As Lawrence has said, if this goes to subcommittee, we'll have more discussion, there'll be a recommendation, it will come back to the committee, and we'll be right back to where we are right here.
So I think it's clear. In this two hours we'll hear from DFO and we'll hear from the first nations stakeholders. They'll have their limited time and the committee can ask questions. If after that point there is a will to look at this and create a further study or a more in-depth study, because it's a complicated issue--I agree there is a lot involved--then it perhaps should go back to the subcommittee at that point to amend the work plan. I am all in favour of that.
However, the point here is to just really limit the amount of time we spend on this topic to one meeting, ideally, or two if we need the full two hours over two meetings. But it's essentially to limit it so that we can hear from the stakeholders on the specific issue of fish and fish habitat as it relates to this issue.
Thank you.