Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this.
My heart definitely goes out to our good colleagues of every party on the west coast.
In my previous career, I travelled across Canada, and quite frankly, North America—obviously, by plane. Although I could do a lot of work over the phone, I did a whole bunch of work in one-on-one meetings with various stakeholders.
Being from Ontario, I went both east and west. The time zones certainly get to you. That's why I'm saying I can appreciate our friends to the west, as well as to the east, because our schedules are incredibly tight. When I was doing my sales job, I'd never quite know what time of the day it was.
The other thing I would never do, though, was change a meeting at the very last minute, the night before, unless a flight was cancelled. I found out about 7:45 last night from my chief of staff that this meeting had been changed.
Why is that important? I'll tell you exactly why.
I am disappointed this morning because I had the most amazing Zoom meeting with a young woman from my riding, as well as a teacher in her classroom. It was a meeting purely to say hi, but more importantly, to give inspiration, to say, “Everything is possible. Go change the world. Leave the world a better place than you found it.” It had been scheduled for a week, and I had to cut that meeting short because of this meeting. That's not fair. It's not fair to the grade six class that they didn't get more time to be with their MP.
There was a reason I booked it for that time. I didn't bring that up to the class, because I didn't want to show frustration, but with all due respect, it's the real cusp of disrespect to MPs when we're trying to reach out. Everybody is incredibly busy. I find it appalling that this is happening.
I had the pleasure and the honour to sit on the international trade committee prior to this. That was right in the heart of CUSMA. We sat for days, eight or 10 hours per day, to rush legislation through. Everybody on that committee agreed that we would sit for days and hours to rush the legislation through, because it had to be done.
The second piece of legislation, now, that I see being rushed through is MAID. However, there is one thing that never happened on the international trade committee: The chair never changed the times.
If we go back to an email that I got on November 6, I believe the whips all came together and agreed that the justice committee would be on Tuesday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nowhere in there do I see anything different.
I have to be very honest with you. I think it's incredibly disrespectful that Mr. Moore did not get a response to his email last night that was sent out, be it from yourself or somebody else.
In closing, I guess it goes like this: If I did this to one of my constituents, if I just decided to turn the channel and do this to them, I would probably be out of a job. At the very least, Ms. Findlay deserves nothing shy of an apology on this front, as well as our other colleagues from the west.
Again, Madam Chair, I have the upmost respect for you. I truly do. I realize this legislation is very important, but at the same time we have to be methodical, we have to be strategic, and we have to have open conversation about this. That open conversation could have happened when government was prorogued, but to disrupt MPs and their schedules is completely disrespectful.
The last thing I would leave you with, and I think we can all agree on this, is that I'm supposed to have House duty this morning. At the eleventh hour, I have to find somebody to cover House duty for me. Each and every one of us knows exactly what that means. At eight o'clock last night, I was trying to scramble around to get somebody to cover House duty, not from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., but prior to that. That's the disrespect that I'm talking about. Usually after dinner I make phone calls to constituents. Instead, they don't get to hear from me because I'm trying to find somebody to cover House duty.
That's where I come from on this front, and I really appreciate the fact that you're giving me the opportunity to speak.
Madam Chair, thank you very much. Again, I have the utmost respect for you. I know you're trying to do your job, but I think it's important that collectively we all get Bill C-7 right, because when the next bills come forward we're going to be in the exact same boat again.
Thank you, Madam Chair.