Thank you, Chair.
The “immediately” means that it should be our first order of business in terms of working together--and I'll emphasize working together as a committee. I feel we do our best work when we're working together, and in fact we saw that earlier. It's just that we've been sidetracked by the opposition. In fact they have split the committee so that it's opposition versus government on something that's not even related to legislation.
Certainly when I discuss this matter with others on the Hill, but also in my riding, they wonder why we're not at work on legislation. They wonder why the committee is being sidetracked and why these motions are coming from the opposition. Why are these motions coming from the opposition to move the committee from its raison d'être, from its core work, off in all directions that don't concern the welfare of Canadians and particularly concern elections?
As I'd mentioned, we have an election potentially coming up, yet this matter is very unclear. So I'm putting this into the context of what the committee had decided before.
I was at the point where I was saying I was not a member of the committee during the first session. Now, being a member during the second session, what I have certainly heard other members say, members of the opposition, and what I've heard you say, Chair, is that the focus of the committee is to be in fact the study of legislation.
So quite frankly, I am baffled as to how it is that we have spent so many meetings not studying legislation. Thank heavens the previous motions from the opposition didn't pass, because if they had, more and more meetings would have been spent on things not related to legislation. I honestly think that would have been a great disservice to Canadians.
So I'm actually quite happy. My hope, Chair, is that it is behind us now as a committee. I'm hoping that on Valentine's Day we can embrace, we can hug, we can work together for the betterment of Canadians, particularly with an election on the horizon.
Chair, I must admit, as a member I am tempted to step off the main track, to step away from the core business of the committee to launch investigations.
The Liberal Party hosted the riding cocktail party last night--