Okay.
My thanks to all the witnesses here today and to the minister.
I am very pleased that the committee has agreed to look into this situation, which, it must be said, has been rather chaotic since the beginning.
Before Christmas, there were concerns about people travelling abroad and ignoring health regulations although they were advised to stay home. They were going abroad and could bring the UK variant back to Canada. Quarantine was pretty much unmonitored—one or two automated calls were made to check that people were actually at home. It was very easy to lie.
The government finally listened to reason and decided to impose mandatory hotel quarantine. Although it has been chaotic, I think it is a good measure that is worthwhile to implement. However, there are a number of glitches. It took several weeks from the time the government announced the quarantine to the time they actually implemented it. Our fears were confirmed: the variant we have heard so much about entered the country.
There must have been discussions between the Department of Health and the Department of Public Safety. Perhaps the two ministers can shed some light on this.
Why did it take so long to implement the mandatory hotel quarantine?