Thank you, Mr. Chair.
If Mr. Marshall is having surgery, first of all, I'm sure the entire committee wishes him well and a speedy recovery. I hope it's not serious.
The second point is that once we have determined we're going to have a hearing on a subject, we normally leave it up to the clerk to determine when the meeting will be held. I agree with Mr. Laforest. Having the deputy here on a serious matter involving hundreds of millions of dollars is important.
I'm trying to find out why we insist on having these meetings when these people can't show up. Why don't we have the clerk schedule the meetings with the witnesses we want, so we don't run into this problem of all these people and members of Parliament here when the important witnesses can't be?
I think we have to get this organization going, Mr. Chairman. I would like to talk to Mr. Marshall. He has some explaining to do on behalf of his department. If we're going to be prevented from that because we, as a committee, without consulting the witnesses, said the meeting has to be today, then we're as much at fault as he or anybody else.
Perhaps we should think these things through and ensure that the committee does work well and gets the job done properly.