Thank you for providing me the floor. You can just interrupt me when you're ready.
First, I was unable to be at the last meeting as an active member of this constituted committee, and I would like to be here for these meetings.
I'm looking at the schedule. You'd like to have a meeting on Friday. I didn't know about the Liberal caucus meeting. I don't follow when your caucus meetings are, so I didn't know about it, and I appreciate that clarification, because I had said something about that week of September before the long weekend.
If the Liberal meeting is, let's say, on the Monday and Tuesday, if we had it on September 2, that's one day less than two weeks from the day that you're going to have the meeting--based on the motion that's in front of us, where it would be August 20, which would be this Friday. I'm saying, why can we not compromise? Nobody on this side is saying that we.... We're not putting our backs up against the wall and saying, “Oh, no meeting, no meeting, no meeting”. We're offering to be there, and I'd like to be there. As I said earlier, the chances of me both staying married and coming back here on Friday are probably relatively slim. And I want to stay married, by the way.
I think I have some things to add to this discussion. Since I'm a member of this committee, I would like to be able to add to that conversation and to question the witnesses that I was unable to before.
Do you have the motion in front of you now? Is that why you're looking at me like that, or...?
After you read that, I will come back. Is that okay, Mr. Chair?