Thank you very much.
I think the best way to answer that question is to ask any person who lives in urban Canada if they would find it acceptable that their member of Parliament never returned home—if members of Parliament all remained in Ottawa all of the time, and people could just Skype in or phone.
It's inappropriate for urban folks and it's inappropriate for folks who live in rural areas, especially when you consider that literacy rates in some of these communities fall below the national average, in some cases significantly.
In my first nations communities as well as communities that have traditionally been farm communities, the expectation is even greater, I find, in those communities than in my urban populations to have face-to-face meetings on a regular basis and be accessible in that format.
I think it's absolutely imperative that this committee and our commissions accept their responsibility to allow constituents to be well served in that capacity to have one-on-one meetings.