I find it really unusual that we wouldn't invite the minister as part of one of our first meetings. That's not the norm here. The norm on all the committees is to have the minister, and having the minister appear at the “earliest opportunity” is about the weakest you could do to invite a minister. That doesn't even include a date. It doesn't have a response time. It doesn't have anything. It simply says that the industry committee—sorry, I mean the innovation, science, and technology committee—is interested in hearing from the minister, so you get a chance....
I think having the agencies come here is a really good example of a good thing to do. I think that's a real benefit, but you know what? I'd rather hear from the minister at a time more convenient to his schedule than to their schedule, at the earliest time possible, and then perhaps there is a time frame in which we can hear from the minister and then we will go back and finish the other work being done because it is more convenient for the minister.
If it's a month later that we're finally meeting with the minister, I've never seen anything like that before. I really haven't. I think this is a fair compromise. It's not demanding a date. It's not demanding a time of response. It is at least telling the minister that we're interested and we want to hear from them, and all we have to do is interrupt something that we're doing—and we should do that anytime, no matter what. If the minister wants to come here when we're doing a study on something or when we're doing legislation, then that should always be our priority. It's a two-way street.