Thanks, Madam Chair.
I would ask that you afford my colleague Ms. Vecchio, and maybe any other colleagues, the same that you would afford your same Liberal colleagues. Mr. Alghabra came at one of our colleagues, Ms. Vecchio, with a “backhanded slap”, so to speak. That's what we call it in our neck of the woods here.
Listen, this is relevant to our committee. Standing Order 32(7) says that we are going to get the report tabled within 20 days of the House being back. This will allow us to be as prepared as possible. There are no hidden monsters in here. We have been absolutely forthright and clear in what our requests are. It is exactly what my colleague Ms. Blaney has mentioned and as Mr. Therrien has mentioned. Canadians want to know why, right in the heart and the depth of a global pandemic, this government, when they needed it the most, a week away from the emergency relief benefits coming to a halt, abandoned them. Why did this government abandon Canadians? They deserve to know that.
We're going to get the report here at PROC. It's going to be tabled for the PROC committee. It behooves us to be prepared for that and to do our own due diligence. The motion that is before you today.... You know, it's no wonder the Liberals are squirming on this committee and are dithering and delaying, wanting to have an opportunity to review, but again, I will bring you back to the motions that we all came together and supported earlier today that we never had a chance to really review in advance.
To Mr. Turnbull's comment, if we have the opportunity to have my colleague Ms. Vecchio reread it at maybe at a slower pace, maybe that will help Mr. Turnbull comprehend it a little bit better.
Nothing in here—it's very forthright—should come as a surprise. Canadians want to know: Was the prorogation for six weeks an honest operational recharge or reset, or was it really just to run away from the WE scandal? I can see my colleagues nodding their heads in the affirmative and shaking their heads in the negative, but it behooves all of us here on this committee to be able to try to do that work. I've always said that, whatever committee we're on, whether it's fisheries or transport, at one point we have to come together as a group to be able to do this work. Sometimes it exposes wounds and scars from within on whichever side, but we have to be able to have the fortitude to be able to do that. Again, you have the opposition obviously in 100% agreement as we move forward. Then you have the government, of course, trying to protect their backsides.
Madam Chair, I would just ask for some leadership from you. We have over an hour here. I think we should be able to get to a vote on this. That would send a real message to Canadians that yet another Liberal-run committee is not blocking any study in terms of prorogation or the WE scandal. That's really what people want to see. If this was really a recharge or reset, then let's see if it was and actually be able to move forward and do some work. There should be nothing in here that the Liberals should be afraid of, or the government should be afraid of, if they're telling the truth.
I'll leave it at that.