Thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving me the opportunity to restart my comments on what you just said.
I want to come back to the fact that when I spoke last week, there were discussions. I won’t repeat exactly what I said when there was a technical problem, but I have to say my understanding was that it’s unusual for us in the Conservative Party of Canada to resist supporting a proposal from my colleague, Mr. Serré, for whom I have a great deal of respect as an individual.
After that comment, I felt that I was inconsistent. It’s important for me to clarify my state of mind.
Now, I think I'm being consistent. When I presented my amendment to Mr. Serré’s motion, point 1 asked for the Minister of Official Languages, the President of the Treasury Board, the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to appear before the committee, for two hours per minister, by November 24, 2022, at the latest.
It was consistent, considering the timing when I tabled that amendment. However, it's November 17 today. The situation has changed. We only have two meetings left after this one. Obviously, the current meeting will not allow us to hear from ministers, because we are discussing procedure.
I remind you, Mr. Chair, that all the uproar, the discussions, the waste of time happened because of a motion tabled by one of my colleagues from the party in power, the Liberal Party of Canada.
So, Mr. Chair, it was quite relevant for me to be uncomfortable with giving quick support to Mr. Serré’s motion last Tuesday. As I said before, I felt insulted. My impression is we’re being hoodwinked. Mathematically, it is impossible to support the motion. As I said earlier, and I just demonstrated, forget about today’s meeting. We’re going to talk about meetings, not time. I consider that to be the problem in this process. So, let’s talk about meetings.
As of November 24, there are two meetings left. We’re being asked to accept point 1, which includes the appearance of four ministers. I must highlight that I appreciate the current government’s openness; it agreed to adding the Minister of Canadian Heritage. In any case, it is now impossible to invite each of the four ministers for two-hour meetings, because there are only two left: November 22 and 24. We would need eight hours for meetings. We are therefore missing two meetings.
At this stage, Mr. Chair, could we hold four meetings by November 24?
My question is for the clerk.