Thank you, Chair.
I note Ms. Rempel pointed out that the request to suspend the quarantine was not contained in the motion, and she's quite correct.
I mentioned that because in the letter to the chair, which was written by the four members of the Conservative party, the fifth paragraph reads, “given the failure to ensure that Canadians under federally mandated quarantines are protected, the Liberal government must put a pause on these new measures”. I took that to mean that the idea behind this was to suspend the quarantine hotel measures. That's why I mentioned it.
I think it is an important measure. It does say “while continuing with the pre-existing on-arrival testing and the 14-day at-home quarantine for all international travellers.” It's not to stop the 14-day quarantine but to suspend the measures, which I guess means the measures for the hotel procedures.
I don't want it to be understood that I mentioned these issues from the Quarantine Act to stop an investigation by this committee into any aspects of this. I was merely pointing out that the division of activity and responsibility is not through the public safety ministry per se, because Canada border services deal with what happens at the border. I'm interested in knowing what the relationship is between the activity at the border and where the Public Health Agency of Canada takes over. Does it simply involve having quarantine officers at the airport facilities, with things then taken over by quarantine screening officers who look after transportation to the hotels, etc.?
There are questions that need to be asked and, certainly, if we have before the committee people from public health who are responsible for the establishment of the forces or the quarantine officers who are in charge, we would like to know what the training arrangements are and who is responsible for those. There are questions that need to be asked, and they need to be answered. That's something I am prepared to see happen.
I wasn't speaking against this committee having any say in it at all. I'm sorry I didn't get to speak before Ms. Rempel Garner, because that's what I wanted to point out before she even started. I understand where she's coming from in terms of the concerns that exist, and I think we all share the view that the public has to have some confidence that what's being done is being done properly.
By the way, if we have only one or two meetings, I think the idea of hearing from the officials first is a good one, because let's hear what the program is, and then let's hear what the ministers have to say about it. Then we can ask questions we might have as to how the supervision is working and how the due diligence was carried out with regard to establishing the program. It is something that has been put together pretty quickly, even though the government had many months to decide whether to do this.
Obviously, with the new variants that have penetrated our country.... We here in Newfoundland and Labrador are very familiar with the new British variant. We have seen how quickly it travelled around my riding. It hit 22 high schools in a matter of two weeks with infections involving the British variant, which is very contagious and very worrisome.
We're all aware of how important this is as a public health measure. I think Canadians support the notion of strict measures at the border. In fact, many of the Conservatives have for many months been calling for stronger measures at the border. Now that we have them, they are certainly imperfect. There's no question about that. We need to have a look at that. I support the idea of proceeding with an examination of that.
I am also very mindful of this committee's other work, which I don't think we need to say more about other than to say that one of the studies is on racism in policing, and we are all familiar with how serious that matter is in terms of public safety as well as the proper operation of our police forces. We have done a major study. We need to get a report done. We can't postpone that.
Now, I know we're talking about two meetings over six hours. I think perhaps we can do what needs to be done in a shorter period of time.