Thank you.
It's funny. We're talking about the agenda. The topic of this meeting is committee business and we're talking about how to best allocate our time.
Of course, prior to Mr. Lake's moving his motion, there were a number of comments made by his colleague, which I'm now responding to at the same time, because it all amounts to how we're going to best use our committee's time.
In terms of calling witnesses, what I would suggest to the Conservatives is that if they want to hear from a particular witness, whether that's the minister or Dr. Tam, or whomever they want, they have the full ability to put that on their witness list and have that person come forward.
I don't see any reason to deviate from the plan that this committee has adopted for between now and June, which centres on COVID and then on the two studies, one of which we've almost finished and one of which was identified by the Conservatives.
I'm not sure where we would have time to add another study on the suicide prevention number, which I agree is a laudable thing. I'm not even sure why we need to study it, because I'm pretty sure that everybody agrees with it. Our time is allotted right through to the end of June already, and that does not take into account legislation that could be coming to this committee, as I'm sure there is. In fact, this week, we debated Bill C-224, which is the bill that was introduced dealing with cancers in the firefighting sector. I anticipate that's going to pass, judging by the debate, and that it will come to our committee.
For all of those reasons, I don't think we need to be passing more motions on studies at this point. I think we should deal with the business that we have already before the committee, which is a full plate. Perhaps when we get to the beginning of June we can have a full meeting on committee business and maybe start planning our agenda for the fall.
Where I'll conclude, Mr. Chair, is that I've had conversations with my Conservative colleagues who don't necessarily agree with this as an equitable way to deal with things, but I notice that three studies have already been approved, one from each party—Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc. There has not yet been one agreed to that the New Democrats have put forward. I am going to be doing that and, in the interests of equity, I'm going to be pressing that each of us has an opportunity to put a subject before the committee that of course receives majority support.
Before we entertain the Conservatives' second study, I will be looking to conclude the Liberals', Bloc's, New Democrats' and Conservatives' studies before we start getting to the Conservatives' second priority before some parties have had a chance to have even one.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.