It absolutely links back. The relevance, Madam Vecchio, is this: What is front of mind of Parliament? We're all here for the citizens of Canada, for our stakeholders, for this country's betterment. What was the focus? The focus was vaccination. The focus was job recovery. The focus was saving jobs. That's why prorogation occurred.
Prorogation is an essential tool when used right, and quite frankly, that's why Canadians do not care about this. We've had our parliamentary committees look into everything prior to that. They're looking into some of the stuff again, which they have every right to do.
Our parliamentary committees are very powerful instruments. They have gone through every program, every controversy, every issue that has popped up since then, and they continue to do that. Therefore, I think a prorogation of four weeks and several days for a government to come back, to create an agenda, a set of legislation that would be there for a global emergency, a global pandemic, a global epidemic, is what was needed at the time, what was essential, what was expected by Canadians and what was delivered for Canadians.
Even after that, if you see what happened after prorogation, right away, the House started very quickly. The fall economic statement was given right after that. Debates on that fall economic statement were done. Tweaks were made. Amendments were suggested. Parliamentary debates resumed. Parliamentary committees resumed. Parliamentary committees challenged us. New committees were set up, including one that I am on, the Canada-U.S. committee to deal with that issue that came out: the protectionism of the U.S. We are debating, and we are continuing to do those things. A new budget was given, which is being debated as we speak, to deal with exactly those issues that are relevant to this day.
This is why Canadians elected this government. This is what Canadians expect in times like these.
That's what I want to share with this committee.
Thank you.