Thank you, Chair, to you and the clerk for getting the meeting together today.
Per the letter we sent to the committee, I move:
That the Committee hold a meeting to invite the Deputy Minister of Health Canada, the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement, the President of the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, the Vice President of Logistics and Operations for the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the head of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, to discuss recent COVID-19 developments including, but not limited to,
Timeline for full vaccination for all Canadians
Mixed vaccinations
Communications on vaccinations
Proof of vaccination status
Pandemic border control measures
Guidance for vaccinated individuals / Benchmarking
An update on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine,
That the meeting be at least three hours in length, that the relevant departments for which officials have been requested be invited and asked to prioritize their attendance but that the meeting not be delayed if they are unable to prioritize attendance at the meeting, that the total time allotted for opening statements be limited to 5 minutes by witnesses for no more than 20 minutes total to ensure adequate time for questions to be posed by committee members, and that this meeting be held on or before the end of day on Friday, May 21, 2021.
I'm moving this motion today because there have been so many questions that have arisen on many of these issues. I do think it is our role as parliamentarians to ask questions of the government on these matters. I think that our committee has been doing good work in pushing the government to act on some of these matters and I think that Canadians have many questions.
I will also note that per the committee timeline, we are in a constituency week next week, which means that normally our committee would not meet, but there are many outstanding questions that I think are very timely. If we're waiting two weeks for another meeting, it's problematic.
That's the genesis of this. Chair, you'll note how we structured the motion this time. If the ministers can come, great. If not, we want to proceed with the meeting next week should this pass, so that we're not in a situation where we were in the past where the meeting did not occur. Certainly we would like the deputy ministers of the aforementioned departments to be able to answer questions.
The motion is moved in the spirit of asking technical questions of the government and to ensure that we are getting answers on some of these very important issues for Canadians.
Thank you, Chair.