Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In general, I support the substance of this motion. I think Michelle has made some important points.
AstraZeneca has just been approved. We know that doses are going to be arriving imminently for Canadians. We also know that provinces, almost uniformly, have prioritized vaccinations by age. I think an extremely important question to this committee and to Canadians is whether AstraZeneca is or is not effective in Canadians over the age of 65.
I think we know that concern about vaccines—vaccine hesitancy and vaccine confidence—is really important. We have a major contradiction at the federal level, with one area of government saying that AstraZeneca is appropriate for people over 65 and another area saying that it doesn't do any good. I think it's very important that we look into this. I don't think it is an urgent concern, but I would say it is a pressing concern.
One thing I want to make clear—I'm sure Michelle didn't mean anything by this—is that I've always been a very strong supporter of constituency weeks. This is not a recess week, to me. It's not a break week. It is a constituency week. Constituency work, I think, is every bit as important for parliamentarians as the work we do in the House. In fact, in some ways, I think it's more important, frankly, to many of the people in our ridings. I just want to put that on the record, because I don't want to leave the impression that if we're not meeting in a constituency week, that in any way suggests we're not working or actively engaged.
My only concern about this is the timing of it. We're meeting on a Friday. The authors of this had the opportunity to choose the dates. They chose March 8, which is Monday. We have a meeting on Monday. My understanding is that the witnesses who will be present on Monday have already been bumped once. These are witnesses we have already selected, each of us. I think they are higher up in the queue and have evidence every bit as important.... One of them is from Pfizer, for example. I would like to hear from Pfizer. I have a boatload of questions that predate last week, which are extremely important to people. I don't mean to single them out as being more important than any of the other witnesses; they're all important. I'm concerned about the timing of this.
I will only support this motion if the meeting is held on March 9, 10 or 11, and I'll tell you why. We also have the minister coming next Friday. We have two extremely important meetings already scheduled for next week, and I will not support a motion that bumps either of those two. We will have to find another meeting slot.
I also think it's not fair to the witnesses we are going to call, who, as of right now, don't even know they're set to be called for Monday. It's a Friday. If we want these witnesses to come prepared to give solid information to this committee, and frankly if all of us want to have time to prepare appropriate questions and do the research necessary to make the most out of that meeting, I don't think we should agree to a meeting on a Friday for Monday. I don't see how having a meeting Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday next week derogates in any way from the importance of this. I think that we can find a time slot.
To conclude, we perennially run up against the issue of whether or not we have slots. I don't know how that works. I'm not sure if we are able to come up with a different meeting time. I'd like to hear from the clerk and, perhaps, from Mr. Chair on that. I don't want to just have a knee-jerk reflex answer of, no, we can't, because I think we can. I think certainly there must be some capacity in the entire House of Commons to schedule an extraordinary meeting outside of normal time slots. I think that will play a role in terms of my position on supporting the motion.
Once again, I'll conclude by saying it's very important. I want to thank my colleague for bringing it forward, because I think it's something that we need to look into. It's just a question of scheduling it in at an appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.