Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't need to use a bunch of time, but I certainly would like to explain it.
Obviously, what we're doing here is something that's come up in this committee a number of times in the past in relation to other matters that we've had at hand. There seem to be these parallel tracks that occur. I know that has been of particular concern to Mr. Christopherson, but other members of the committee have also expressed concern about it in the past as well, and it's this idea that somehow the committee will work on a subject matter, and then independently, the minister and the government will be doing something. We've even seen cases in which we haven't completed our work, and yet the government has come forward with legislation on an issue.
I'm not suggesting that's what is happening, that there is any intention of the government to do that in this particular instance, but obviously, where there is work being done in consultation on an issue—it was indicated to us the other day that some other consultation have taken place—it would be helpful for the committee to have access to information on what has been heard.
If the goal of the government is to try to utilize the committee, to allow it to be helpful in informing the government in what it does, which I would hope would be the case, then I would think the government would want to share that information with us. Of course, then, we in turn can provide a report that's helpful to the government, hopefully, in determining what course of action it takes.
Obviously, given the fact these consultations have taken place, it would be good to get some kind of a briefing. I haven't indicated who should brief us, but it should be someone who is knowledgeable. Maybe it's Mr. Fillmore who does that, I don't know. The minister or some other official could give us some sense as to what's been heard. That might help inform some of the things we would recommend as part of our report. That is the reason for it.
Obviously, when you're doing something like this as a committee, you want to make sure you have access to all the information available to you. It's much like the amendment I made to the motion earlier. It was just to make sure that the committee had all the information that's available to it to be able to help it make its best decisions. Being prudent, all of us as legislators want to make sure that we have access to that information to be able to do that.
Simply, all this is intended to do is to get us some information that might be helpful to us in making some decisions toward the report.