Mr. Chair, I am speaking in support of my colleague's amendment as well.
With respect to Minister Freeland's appearance, let's make note of the elephant in the room here. Minister Freeland has been the most visible and most vocal in terms of the government's approach to Ukraine and she has been completely silent and invisible with respect to the government's decision around these turbines.
Minister Wilkinson, who is not the minister of foreign affairs and who's not responsible for issuing these permits, has been made the designated fall guy for this bad decision. Minister Freeland is in hiding.
If the government is willing to defend this decision and if the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada is fine with this decision and thinks this decision is consistent with the values she's articulated in the past, then she should come before this committee as the government's prime spokesperson on their approach to Ukraine. She should come before this committee and defend that decision.
She is the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. This issue has been addressed by the Prime Minister of Ukraine and by the Prime Minister of Canada. It is totally appropriate for her to come. In terms of this canard about it being really complicated for scheduling to get three ministers, there's no date attached to Minister Freeland. The amendment asking Minister Freeland to come is part of the second section of the motion, which does not have a specific timeline or date attached to it. While I think we want to hear from the Minister of Foreign Affairs in particular within the tighter prescribed timeline, Minister Freeland can take her time and reflect on what she does or doesn't want to say on this.
It is ridiculous that the government says the Deputy Prime Minister is passionate and is the expert on this subject, but then somehow she isn't the appropriate person to speak to this absolutely critical issue in terms of Canada's support, or lack thereof, for Ukraine during their critical time of need.
On the question about Ukraine's foreign minister coming before this committee, nobody is proposing summoning or requiring a minister of another country or even an ambassador to come before the committee. It's simply a question of an invitation. As far as an invitation is concerned, I suspect that, given how critically important this issue is for the Ukrainian government, given that President Zelenskyy has addressed this issue directly and given that a Canadian diplomat has been summoned in connection with this issue, this is a high priority issue. I suspect it will be a priority for the foreign minister to appear and the foreign minister would welcome the invitation.
Nobody is going to think any less of the foreign minister or Ukrainian government officials if the circumstances in which they receive the invitation are such that they're simply not able to respond to it. Of course we would be understanding of that, but absolutely let's issue the invitation and extend the offer. I think it makes eminent sense.
Why is this such an important issue for Ukraine? They've articulated it clearly. We know, and the German chancellor has said, that these turbines are not necessary for European energy security and that they won't guarantee European energy security going forward. This is part of the Kremlin's game to expose their ability to weaken sanctions at will. We have to stand against that. We have to say that we will not grant exceptions to sanctions and we will defend our sanctions regime. We have to take that strong and principled position or else the Kremlin will continue to look for opportunities to whittle away at that sanctions regime and render it meaningless.
It's an important enough issue that we should ask the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada to appear and we should invite Ukraine's foreign minister to appear. We've shown in these discussions a willingness to try to work collaboratively around aspects of this motion, but the direction the government is trying to take us in with these amendments is clear. It's fewer witnesses and fewer hearings. It's not extending invitations to certain key, high-profile people.
I'm strongly in support of my colleague's subamendment, which I think establishes firmly the importance of this issue and establishes that we do not just want to hold hearings, but we want to hold the kind of substantive, detailed hearings with high-profile people such that we can get to the bottom of this issue.