Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
With all due respect Mr. Chairman, at the start of the meeting, you had the clerk hand out two proposed timetables: one in French and one in English. It was once that information was handed out that questions were raised about Mr. Lord's appearance. All that committee members are asking for—on this side at least, I believe—is that Mr. Lord be invited again. I simply asked for some information from the clerk, and he confirmed that Mr. Lord had declined our invitation. Let's do that and then hear from our witness. It is as simple as that.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out that this is a follow-up to the proposed schedule you distributed. You did not distribute it in camera, but during a public meeting of our committee, as suggested by the steering committee. There is only one omission; the rest seems to be fine, Mr. Chairman. If we agreed to amend the proposed schedule and invite Mr. Lord back, we could quickly take a vote and would still have a full hour to hear from our witness this morning. I am doing this in all sincerity so that we can move committee business forward following your decision to hand out the proposed schedule. You made that decision, Mr. Chairman.