I don't think anybody is disputing how important jobs are to the shipbuilding industry, just as we're not disputing how important jobs are to veterans, or looking at the green economy, or any of the other priorities that we had prior to this. The kicker is how overly prescriptive this is, which is why I referenced how it turns the page on other discussions that we had prior to the unfortunate and untimely dissolution of Parliament.
Even in my remarks after this is dealt with, I would still point out that defence procurement, with a focus on shipbuilding, has always been a priority of this committee in my short time here. I don't think that will change. What will change, though, is how we order the studies of this committee.
My preference is to resume, notwithstanding....To be on the record, for those who might be tuning in for the first time, we worked through COVID. It's not as if we hit pause at this committee and didn't do any work during COVID. We worked through COVID and had collaboratively identified and prioritized the good work of this committee to come up with what should have been, at least in my opinion, a full resumption of the work we had done.
I'm not going to be supporting this. I understand that defence procurement and the focus on shipbuilding is critically important. At the appropriate time, we can work together to draft a motion that would be beneficial to the entire committee, and not just switch our attention to something that is very prescriptive in a 16-week, November or December, drop-dead period.