First, Mr. Chair, I have to respond to that comment by my colleague.
It was the NDP, actually, that worked with the government—pressured the government—so this committee would start sitting as the next committee to sit. Here we are; we've committed to sitting over the summer. The Conservatives initially wanted the House to rise on June 17 and reconvene in September.
Right now we're sitting over the summer and we have a chance while we're sitting over the summer to increase meetings should we decide to do that. We have to be cognizant of our whips and the staff of the House of Commons, and whether it's even feasible to have further meetings. We're starting with two, and I think this is an opportunity right now for us to get started.
I agree that we have a lot of work to do and a lot of catching up to do, which is why we're sitting over the summer, why we're going to have questions at the COVID committee over the summer, and why we're having 90-minute question periods instead of 45-minute question periods.
This is something we could talk about all day, and we can spend our committee time on this, but right now adding this study gives us a chance to prioritize how we're going to work going forward. Yes, we have a lot of studies. I'm up for increased meetings. The New Democrats are not opposed to that. In fact, we are the ones who have been pushing for this committee to sit and for us to meet over the summer months. There's no hesitation for us to want to work harder and more, but we have to make sure we do it with our party whips and make sure we're cognizant of the staff of the House of Commons so that this is feasible. We're starting with those two meetings.
I support the motion. I think it's a good motion for us to have on our docket. As we look at our priorities, certainly it can't be ahead of what we've identified we need to study that we had agreed to in March. Those studies are going to take us into the fall. Certainly, salmon is going to take us through the summer and into the fall, because it's a study that needs priority attention.
I support this motion.