Thank you, through you, Madam Chair, to Mr. Fillmore.
I think the only thing that I'll add, because I tried to get my comments in at the beginning—and I thank the indulgence of the chair for that—is this notion of pairing. Perhaps I could address that directly.
I don't know how I'm going to meet the end of my life. I don't know when I'm going to meet the end of my life. This is an example. Let's take the most extreme example.
This committee heard testimony from Dona Cadman. This committee heard testimony from Jean Yip. In that testimony, you heard about people who weren't interested in neglecting the responsibility they had to their communities or to the battle they fought their entire lives. I know that each person, as I look at you across the table, is coming here because you're trying to make the community better, the country better, and you're giving with all of your heart. As you face an end-of-life circumstance, the idea that you would pair and give away that last chance to have a voice is not reflective of the people I've seen in that position.
I also would take it one step further, which is that in any state of malady—and you've heard from some members on this—be it a mental health concern, or be it, frankly, not even a malady but a circumstance where.... As I mentioned very directly, there were different moments in time when I should have made a different decision, frankly, about being home when I was told that no, I wasn't allowed to.
Being able to be home in critical moments in your family's life, being able to be there when it really counts for them, and being able to still do your duty that you were elected to do and to be given a little bit of flexibility....
I think of what you've seen as this pandemic has eased. I very much hope that we're facing the end of the kind of circumstances we saw over the previous two years, but I think the learning was that we can afford a little more empathy and compassion for each other's circumstances, that we can afford a little more time. I think we've been able to demonstrate over the last couple of months in the House the appropriate and effective use of these provisions without undermining accountability, and I think that in the process we've been more human. Hopefully, we'll attract other people here, because I think one of the things that we have to think of, regardless of what you think of me or of any parliamentarian, is that we have to care about the future of this place.
We have to care about who walks in these doors, and we need to attract the brightest and the best. Those people need to be able to take a look at those families and say, “I'm going to be able to be there in really critical moments. When times are really tough, you're going to be able to count on me to be there.”
In this period over the last couple of months, we've attempted to take very seriously that balance of giving respect and room to members while also adhering to the responsibility we have as a government to remain accountable and present and for members to be able to fully and completely participate in our processes.