Thank you for that question, Monsieur Berthold. You've asked me to respond to two points.
First, there is a very clear difference between strongly encouraging or asking a committee to study something and mandating the agenda of the committee. So yes, committees of course are listening to the House and saying, yes, we're going to take on that study. Absolutely. That's the way the House works. Then committees go back to the House and give them information on the study. But for the House to have the ability to come here, stop what we're studying, drop another study on top, and tell us the order in which we study—in other words, they determine our agenda—is very different from the House saying that we want you to look upon this.
So that's the first question. There's the distinction between encouraging a study or asking a committee to undertake a study, which is what we're here for—that's what we entertain and that's what we do—as opposed to saying that you're studying this, and you're studying it now, and you're going to have a report by June 29.
I'm bringing this up for two reasons. One is that Mr. Genuis brought it up today, but he's not the only one. It has been brought up over the past 500 or whatever hours we've been on. Over that time, this issue has been raised a number of times with respect to the question of privilege at this committee. I think as the mover of the motion in the House, it's important that I go on record as saying that this question is important. I don't want it misunderstood that I don't think it's an important question. It is an important question.
So I wanted to explain that, but also to offer a bit of concern with regard to the way in which the motion was put forward, because I think in terms of some of the criticism we're getting, you're doing the exact same thing. There's the mandating with dates. For example, in Mr. Simms' motion I think there was a date. We're criticized because there's a date, but then in your motion there's a date too.
I don't want to start getting nitpicky, because that's not what this is about. It's not about nitpicking. I just want to go on the record with why I put that motion on and the concerns I have with the motion that the Conservatives put forward in response.
Does that answer your questions?