Are we good? You guys have had your laughs? Okay. Great.
When I look at the text of this motion, what I'm seeing, based on the experience that I've had over these past 10 years as a parliamentarian, is not that any one of our opposition members is going to read these millions of documents, but they're willing to spend so many dollars to use our public service to obtain them and then to translate them and then just stall the amazing work that this committee does generally. I think we're beyond that. We should be beyond that, because what ultimately is the objective here? What are we trying to achieve?
Again, I sit on the government operations committee. We're going through the comprehensive expenditure review. We're looking to see how the public service spends their dollars and to see how we can find efficiencies and make sure that our democratic institution, our parliamentary institution, is well maintained and is well supported and that our Canadian taxpayer dollars are well respected while we're doing that.
For me, as I come in here and look at what is being proposed here, I'm quite aghast, to be honest. My understanding is that the committee has already received briefings and has been provided with the documentation that's been requested and that officials are actually coming through to speak with committee members as well. Also, committee members have the privilege to ask witnesses, as they come forward, for individual pieces of information or areas of interest that they have and to receive that information specifically. When I see a motion like this, I'm thinking, why do you need all of these documents? Also, why do you need them within 30 days?
Members across the way have been here just as long as I have, if not longer. They know exactly the limitations of the resources of the House. When we're putting a limitation on the time frame and expanding the breadth of the documents that we expect to receive, while also maintaining and respecting that all of these documents need to be translated into both of our official languages, it really calls it into question: Why?
Our committees are tools to promote democracy. They have the ability to not only provide government oversight but also bring up the new issues Canadians raise with us in the areas our committees are targeted towards—that we are mandated for. When I see us using committee resources...to what objective, I'm not sure. I'm sure we'll find out from the opposition in a couple of weeks or months. Why do we need to waste those couple of weeks and months? Why can we not talk about the issues of our generation right now, especially in this committee—human resources, skills and development? It is unreal, to be honest. As I said, I've been through production orders in the past. Some of them have been successful. We had our House resources spend thousands of hours on translating documents that nobody really read.
That is ultimately disrespectful to the resources we have available, as members of Parliament. For me, a motion that demands millions of pages with unrealistic timelines is an insult to our House resources. We, as parliamentarians, can do better, and we should do better. We are elected to lead by example. We are elected to put forth the issues our constituents raise and represent Canadians here in this place. What we're doing with the valuable time we have sitting at this table is debating whether or not millions of pages of documents can be produced within 30 days and translated, following all the House rules. We can definitely be better than that.
Demand on public servants is great, and not just now. I especially remember how, during COVID days, we had very limited resources. There were a lot of shenanigans going on around the House. The awesome people who support us in committees—who support us in the work we do as parliamentarians—were left scrambling. There were many instances in which they had to go into therapy because of the toxicity of this place, due to the lack of resources and support for them.
Coming back to the motion, what is the objective here? Why do we not care about our public servants and the work they do? Why do we have to use them as a base to put forward our own political agenda, whatever that may be? It really doesn't make sense.
Here is the other piece of that: When we take away resources—