Thanks, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I agree with the amendment, obviously. I think there are times when we do have to be here.
You know, it's funny. I'm not disparaging my colleagues here at this committee, but we went through exactly this same thing at another committee. We heard stories such as that they're working from their constituencies—that's fine; I do the same—that break weeks are sacrosanct, that they're with their constituents and cannot come, that they can't even virtually attend meetings because it's so important to be with their constituents.
I agree that time with our constituents is very important. However, we actually looked up the calendars of these members, through Facebook and Twitter posts, and it turns out that over a six-week break period when we weren't meeting, the five members had a total of 17 events that they attended.
Frankly, if we cannot take two hours or an hour of our time, regardless of whether it's a break week or a sitting week, to discuss important matters—