Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As my colleague said before, what is in this motion? Yes, testing is important, and I didn't get a chance to read all of this, but what is in it? That is why, on the last statement, I said we need to set our priorities.
Mr. Fisher mentioned a very important point, which is that public health officials will have to work to produce documents to address this motion while case numbers are rising in Quebec and Ontario, let alone the fact that this weekend people will gather for Thanksgiving and we likely could see more cases arise. Today we have over 900 cases in Ontario, and Quebec cases have been over 1,000 a day while Ontario has seen, far and away, the largest case total today. In my riding, case numbers are also rising.
This Thanksgiving weekend has the potential to be a super-spreader weekend. That is what people are saying. This is what our public health officials are concerned about. We must take time to properly analyze and then listen to public health officials, and, with this motion, ensure that we are not overburdening public officials whose job it is to keep our constituencies safe. We need to be cognizant. There is a significant amount of personal information that needs to be protected.
I need to add that operational details and action taken by other orders of government would also likely be caught up in this surge, and it is important for them to be consulted beforehand as well. Materials that do not contain this information can be publicly shared, as requested, but we need to be mindful of privacy issues as well. The hard-working public servants who are doing the critical work to help Canadians and keep people safe would be forced to redirect their efforts to filling these orders. Our teams and departments are in regular communication with the provinces and territories. They are wrapped up in all of our communications.
This is a time to focus on Canadians' health. It is more important. Making some of these documents public at this time could put Canadians' positions at risk as we are trying to resolve the issues.
Mr. Chair, we need to turn on the light of discussion, hear from witnesses and do a proper study so that Canadians are not falling through the cracks. This is an urgent and important study, and through it we can make a real difference.
Mr. Van Bynen's motion would ensure that we study that right away. This is very important. I cannot stress it more. I know when I meet with my youth council, my constituents and stakeholders, I hear how this pandemic is exposing how broken our mental health system already is and how much we need to focus on that. We must invest in community mental health programs and services, especially for our isolated seniors. We need to improve on that. We need to improve our nationwide suicide prevention plan. These are very important topics, along with long-term care, and there are many more.
That is why we need time to read this, to prioritize the study and to read what is in it. We need to bring that in too.