Thank you, Mr. Chair.
However Mr. Thériault wants to clarify it, the bottom line is that it sounds like we're in agreement. There is nothing that ever said that the PMPRB study has to be done by January 1. I want to also state that the motion does say that we have to hold at least four meetings, and I believe it even provides for our choosing to have supplementary meetings if we wish to as well.
What I'm talking about is having two meetings of the PMPRB study to be completed before we break for the seasonal break in December. That will be the one we have this week, and then one more, and then three on COVID.
I don't want Mr. Thériault—and if it's my error, that's fine—to consider that I'm suggesting that we do not have the remaining meetings on PMPRB when we come back in the new year, which we can do. What I am suggesting is that when we come back in January or February, we schedule the remaining two meetings on PMPRB and maybe even consider having more, if that's the will of the committee.
I would finally just point out that what was curious about the PMPRB motion was that it spoke to conducting that study in parallel with the COVID study. We did that was because, as we all know, it's the normal course of action for committees to usually deal with one study at a time, but we wanted to have two going at the same time. Of course we have very different, unique circumstances in terms of scheduling committee time in this COVID environment.
The COVID study is going to be going on for months. We have just submitted 16 different topics, and we're going to deal with the very first one next week. Obviously the COVID study will continue in January, February, March and April. We honour the PMPRB motion by having four meetings conducted in parallel with the COVID study. Nothing says we do that first.
I'm going to conclude by saying this: I agree that the PMPRB study is important. What I'm saying is that the COVID crisis must take priority right now for the reasons I indicated before, and we can move the PMPRB study in parallel in due course as we study COVID.
If we don't get to work on the COVID crisis very quickly.... Maybe Mr. Thériault and I disagree on this, but I say that Canadians want us to get to work on the COVID crisis right now and start dealing with the very serious, imminent and pressing health and life challenges that we are dealing with right now as we also move forward on the PMPRB study.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.