Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm just going to outline that Standing Order 120 does empower committees to hire “expert, professional, technical and clerical staff” on contract from outside the parliamentary precinct as required. However, page 1,054 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice also mentions that if a committee wishes to proceed with hiring from outside, they must first determine a few things.
The first one is “the nature and scope of the work to be performed.”
They must then “adopt a motion specifying the terms of reference and duration of the contract, [as well as] the maximum rate or amount of remuneration of the additional staff”, which could be a separate motion, and the budget would have to be adopted by the committee.
Lastly, they are required to obtain the necessary approval and funding for the contracts from the appropriate authorities, which are the liaison committee and, depending on the amount, the Board of Internal Economy.
With this said, it's possible for the committee to retain the services of an external provider. However, there are mandatory steps in the process that could perhaps make it difficult to accomplish by December 16.
It's up to the committee to decide how they wish to proceed.