Thank you.
First of all, I think it's an excellent motion. From the beginning, one of the main concerns of the government side—in fact, I think of all of us—has been how we can efficiently get important information to us, given that there could be a large volume. I think this is an excellent way to prioritize, given the realities of the letter I just saw this morning from the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mr. Shugart. He is essentially saying that the government can't provide all the documents in time. I'm hearing from the law clerk that, given the Herculean efforts and extra resources of his office, he can't meet the requirements of the motion in the time period given.
As parliamentarians, the only responsible thing to do is see how we can shape our motion to respond to that reality. I can speak for the New Democrats in that I think we should be focusing on vaccines and rapid testing, which are two issues Canadians are probably most interested in hearing about. I think this is nothing more than an attempt to shape the motion into a more reasonable path forward, so that we can actually get started on getting the documents coming to the committee, as the House wanted.
In light of Ms. Rempel Garner's last comment, I was a little unclear about the way forward, too. I think she and the chair are right that this has to go back to the House. However, at the end of the clerk's speaking notes, after taking us through the practical difficulties of processing the information in time, he says:
Should the volume of the documents provided go beyond what my Office can complete in 7 days, I will immediately inform and seek guidance from the Committee with respect to the way forward.
If I may, it might help all committee members to put that question to the clerk and ask him to explain that. I read that to mean that, given that the motion has passed to refer these documents to the committee, perhaps this committee can work with the law clerk on getting an efficient path forward, so that we can get documents coming to the committee in an orderly fashion, given the practical and pragmatic realities of the volume of documents.
Can I ask the law clerk that? Can this committee simply work with you, or does this have to go back to the House?