Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 13th, 2011

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Chair, I want to thank my honourable colleague for the comment he has made. I appreciate it, but if you were sitting in my seat, you would look at the situation and would see why we're feeling the way we are. It's a very strong feeling that we all hold.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

We're nowhere near the end of the study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

Mr. Eyking.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

I half agree with the NDP, but I think we have some really good witnesses. When we group them together, we really get a synergy going. The witnesses we have had in the last few meetings suggest a statement about where many of the private-sector initiatives are going.

That being said, we have to do the same thing if we look at having more NGOs or whatever. I think it's good to group them together; you get a really good snapshot. I agree with the NDP that we have to move towards others too, but let's group them together, so that you don't have too much of a mix going on. When we come back, we should—

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Chair, on the point of order, in no way was my comment on the quality of the witnesses we've had or anything they had to say. I want to have that on the record as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

In the first meeting when we come back, then, we'll have a look at the witnesses. As Mr. Dechert said, there are still a number of witnesses we've been working through, including the opposition witnesses. The reason things moved forward this way was that we changed the nature of the study, so new witnesses had to come from the opposition, and we had already started through with some of those.

The point is taken. In the first part of the new year, we'll have a look at witnesses.

Thank you very much.

Doctor, thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.