Mr. Chair, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the witnesses and then tell them that we are very pleased to have them here today and that it is not our intention to be disrespectful to them in any way. When we invited the witnesses to testify, we obviously could not have known that the government would impose a gag order to expedite Bill C‑31.
Now the situation is this. The government and the NDP want C‑31 to move quickly. We don't agree with that, but we respect that. We can probably start clause-by-clause on Monday night. That means that, because of the gag order, we have very little time—I agree—to call witnesses and begin our planning.
On the other hand, the motion that has been tabled in the House of Commons gives us priority in accessing the resources of the House if we want to hold additional sittings. Mr. Chair, that means that if those sittings are not held tomorrow, they should be held on Thursday or Friday.
First of all, I hardly see how we can wait until next Thursday to plan this work. That makes it impossible; indeed, the mission is almost impossible. From my point of view, democracy is already suffering.
Then we need to be able to plan what additional resources we are going to ask for, and how we are going to operate in relation to witnesses. When we finish talking about the motion, we will have 15 to 20 minutes left. That is already a tour de force.
For that reason, I will stop talking. I think we should get on with it, with a heartfelt thank you to the witnesses from the Public Health Agency of Canada for being here with us today.