Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to clarify a few things. I had a conversation with Mr. Hawn in private. I assure you that we have no intention whatsoever of delaying the adoption of this bill or of holding endless hearings.
We believe that these are important amendments to a bill that is of utmost importance for National Defence. We want to take the time in January to study certain aspects ourselves because we will have technical questions.
It's very likely that the minister or the judge advocate general will be able to answer these questions. We have no problem accepting that the minister will be the first witness and that he will be accompanied by the judge advocate general. I'm in favour of that, if he can be here for two hours at our first meeting in early February.
I don't know what my opposition colleagues think, but we intend to work effectively and to hear the witnesses that we'll choose in the next few weeks. Then, we'll be able to proceed fairly quickly. We don't intend to hold this up, but we still want to do a serious study.
If we do it this way, we won't be ready on Tuesday to ask relevant enough questions, given the significance of the bill. We would prefer to start slowly and steadily in early February.