Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Clerk.
I appreciate the feedback and certainly the sensitivity surrounding those suffering in James Smith Cree Nation. I agree with my colleague Tako. I think his point was very well made.
We're open to the date, in answer to Ms. Michaud. I said it would be by the end of next week, so that first meeting would happen next week. The Conservatives would certainly like to see a robust study on this. We can bring in a lot of experts to help us understand how we can prevent this from happening in the future. I think that's quite important. It seems like we all agree on that.
My concern is that if we wait for the internal inquiry to occur, which, I believe, would be the third inquiry of this kind in two and a half years, it could be quite some time before it happens. It could be well into next year. I think that's far too long. I would appreciate it if committee members could agree that we ensure we have this first initial meeting, at least, within the next month. That would, perhaps, be fair. Certainly, we would like to see it next week.
One reason is that the public has not heard a robust response from the Parole Board, Corrections Canada or the governing officials on this. They have the right to hear those opening statements. I think the public would be well placed to hear that, particularly those in James Smith Cree Nation and Saskatchewan at large. That would only benefit the conversation. It would certainly show the public that we are taking this very seriously and acting quickly on it.
That will also provide us a bit more time to get some great witnesses, academic experts and the like to take it up in the new year, perhaps, or the rest of it starting in December. I do think there is some urgency that the public hear a robust response from these agencies tasked with keeping us safe and that ultimately failed to do so.