Getting into the discussion here on the floor, I'll speak to what my colleague mentioned. We are going really fast from inviting to summoning somebody. What I've seen in some of the other committees I've been on is that sometimes invitations don't work for the person. We should be a bit flexible and humane. There could be some circumstances we're not made aware of that we need to look into. It could be for health reasons; it could be for travel. It's important we do give the witnesses another chance to get back to us before we demand or summon. Through you, Mr. Chair, it's very important to make sure we do remain flexible. We want to be respectful and give them that chance.
What we're discussing now is the motion at hand. I don't believe it falls within the mandate of our committee. We're here to review Auditor General reports and report back to the House. I know there are many, many reports pending. The list is growing very long. We have colleagues in the House asking us when we'll be getting to certain reports they're interested in.
I believe there was one on indigenous drinking water, before I got on this committee. That one is very important to some of our colleagues here, as well, and important to me. We have constituents who have reached out on that one, as well. I know that within our mandate.... My wife is a teacher, and her students discuss indigenous drinking water availability, so it is important to my constituents. Students have written to my office about this. That's something I know is very important to so many of us.
Going back to the motion at hand, I don't think it falls within our mandate. We need to stay on track here to make sure the committee is focused on the mandate we're given. We should focus on the reports we're tasked to review. It's very important to have that on the record, for those who are watching, that we need to focus on our mandate. We need to focus on what we're put on this committee to do.
I know many of my colleagues here will have more to add to this, but I do believe we need to give witnesses another chance before we demand or summon. Sometimes, as I said, the circumstances may not have worked the first time. There are other committees where we ask witnesses to come, and they're not available. Sometimes we select 20 witnesses, and 10 are not available. We figure out a way. We need to remain flexible in terms of asking our witnesses to come. That's what we should be going forward with, having that invitation sent out again to see what the flexibility is and what we can do.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.