I'm just waiting for it to come into my inbox to make sure that it corresponds exactly to what I have, Madam Chair.
I'd like to move that the motion be amended by adding, “(c) That the Committee seek additional resources to meet for two extra hours each week until the above witness list is exhausted” and by replacing, in paragraph (a), “October 9, 16, 23 and 30, 2023:” with “October 16, 23, 30, 2023, and November 6, 2023:”.
I believe that should match, Madam Chair, what has been circulated in both official languages to our emails.
Madam Chair, we need to move forward, and we need to study this issue to get some answers about what happened in this embarrassing international disgrace, which happened in our Parliament only a matter of a few weeks ago. I think there are many Canadians wondering with bewilderment how this could have happened.
There are a lot of answers that our committee needs to get on this issue, particularly because, as Mr. Cooper alluded to very well, the Prime Minister is responsible. He was the one who invited President Zelenskyy to come to Ottawa to address Parliament. I would say that, with these visits, every single minute is coordinated. It stops at the Prime Minister with the resources he has in the Prime Minister’s Office and the operations and the accountability that he is responsible for. We need to get some answers to the document production and through the list of witnesses that we have before us.
Madam Chair, there was that delay and that need for suspension, because, as we mentioned, this was not our desired outcome today, but the reason we are moving this forward now is for this to be discussed in public and debated and to provide a timeline for our committee and a road map to get to the bottom of this.
I will note the bit of irony where, as Mr. Cooper alluded, we could not get support from the NDP and Ms. Blaney to bring this forward in a public setting to resolve this. It was actually her NDP counterpart on government operations, Mr. Johns, who, only a matter of a couple of weeks ago, put into the record in public at the government operations committee, the desire.... We got a letter from Mr. McCauley in his role as chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates requesting that this become a priority for our committee to undertake.
In public, members of the NDP have stated what they wanted for PROC. Mr. Johns said, “we want this to be their top priority. We know they're undertaking a lot of really difficult studies. It is a challenging job. They have as much as this committee.” He was referring to the government operations committee. He continued, “We have eight studies going on here as well. I want to make sure that we get this to PROC and that we write in the letter that this is an absolute priority of this committee and that we ask PROC to take this on and they study this urgently.”
Here we are now trying to do just that and being blocked, I think, from coming to a resolution and getting these meetings, these witnesses and these documents under way.
Madam Chair, I am happy to put forward the amendment to the main motion that Mr. Cooper has introduced. I think it is imperative, as suggested by Mr. Johns of the NDP only a couple of weeks ago, that we get this under way, that we pass this motion and that we start to get answers about the actions or lack thereof of the Prime Minister and the government and how this international disgrace and embarrassment was allowed to happen in our House of Commons.