Thank you so much.
I just want to reflect on what Mr. Gerretsen said about the highest numbers we've seen there. That is a concern, but I also want to remind everyone here that the CERB is ending and a lot of Canadians are wondering what they're going to do and how they're going to pay their bills. Unfortunately, the government did make a decision to move forward to prorogation, which really meant that the day we were set to sit in the House.... I was hoping, personally, to see legislation come forward about what was going to happen next so that we could have an appropriate debate, get those things moved through the House and move forward to support Canadians. That was my concern. What I've heard from my constituents, sadly, is that there is a lot of deeply held concern and frustration that this method of moving forward by the government, really silencing Parliament, was based on the scandal, and I think it is important that we uncover that.
I am a newer member to this committee. I do know that our job is to look at the procedural process of how decisions are made. I feel this is something we should be looking at. We should be making sure that, in a time of a pandemic, it wasn't the government's choice to make this decision based on a political decision-making process.
One of the things I would like to be studying as well in this place, in this committee, is what an election would look like, potentially, during a pandemic. How do we make a national plan to look across Canada? There are a lot of things I would love to get on with doing, but unfortunately we had a government that silenced all of our abilities to make those actions happen. I'm really in a position of feeling a deep element of concern, wanting to make sure that we are all moving together to look after the needs of Canadians and not silencing the voice of those folks who put us here simply because the Prime Minister and ministers were in a situation that perhaps they should not have been in.
I guess my question for you.... I understand that Mr. Therrien wants to speak, and I think it is absolutely important that all the parties speak. If we are not going to vote on this today, I want to know that there is a commitment from the chair to find out when the next date will be, so that we can be back in this committee very quickly to deal with this very important issue.
Thank you.