Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks for bringing the motion forward.
I have a couple of questions so that maybe we can also get a better idea of a schedule. I have a couple of concerns.
First, I think the number of hours is not consistent with the time off that's necessary in our constituency workweek. For me, that's very problematic. Perhaps we could amend some of the ways we do business here with regard to lowering the time for presentations by witnesses, and perhaps even our own question time, to cram in more witnesses. They can send in written submissions, so we might be able to do something clever related to that.
I also have a concern that this is another Conservative motion and they have a motion on the permit economy. I don't know if they're moving down that study order to accommodate this. I think we've been able to work for over a decade here very co-operatively in this committee to make sure that our studies are done in a way that's fair. This seems to be another priority brought forth, so it would require some compromise, in my opinion.
There is another couple of small things in the motion. I don't really care for telling the minister he can't have staff here and stuff like that. That seems counter to the experiences I've had before. I don't know how much we want to get into that, but those are a couple of minor things, so perhaps if we could get our schedule laid out.... We have a lot of business and a lot of things going on.
The constituency week is very important. I'm from a region where COVID-19 has really ravaged the area. In fact, we have the AstraZeneca vaccine coming here a bit sooner because of the border, the complications and the age and poverty demographics we have in my region, and also the language. We've been helping to deal with that as well, so I have a lot of things on my mind.
I'm interested in the subject matter. For me, it's very easy as an issue. I'm against the merger or acquisition for a bunch of reasons I won't get into right now. I'm more than happy to accommodate this, but it has to be done with compromise.
I'll turn to my colleagues. Perhaps if we get a bit better scheduling as well.... Madam Chair, you mentioned the two holidays. I don't know if they were taken into consideration with the 12 hours that were provided there. Again, I'm open to seeing if we can accommodate in the way we do business in the committee and run more witnesses through, if necessary, to get to the objective.
Thank you very much.