Thank you very much.
I appreciate Mr. MacGregor's remarks very much. On this week four, it's nice to hear from him. Mr. MacGregor is quite level-headed but I've never seen him so fired up. I did appreciate the passion in his remarks. It's certainly how I've been feeling. I think that's been evident over the last number of weeks, and this is obviously a very personal issue to many of us who have this experience in our communities and the like. I appreciate the passion coming out of this committee, and frankly from all sides. It's an important issue to debate and talk about.
In response to Ms. Michaud, I take her point, but the government hasn't done the consultation. That's the problem. That is why we're suggesting and we put forward an idea that since they haven't done their homework—they don't want to go across the country and they don't want to talk to northern Canadians, rural Canadians or indigenous Canadians—then we will do the work.
I won't repeat all of Mr. MacGregor's remarks, but he made a very clear argument, as we have done, that we're only in this mess because the Liberals brought this forward in the eleventh hour. We wouldn't be here in this extraordinary circumstance had they not done that.
That's why we proposed 20 meetings. Included in that would be travel to rural and northern indigenous and non-indigenous communities. I think it's more than reasonable. Again, if it were up to me, there would be 50 meetings. That's what the government should have done, at a minimum, before they launched this on the committee at the eleventh hour.
Just to speak to the subamendment quickly, because I know we're running out of time, I would say that eight meetings is okay. I was hoping that perhaps we could meet in the middle, but I know I can't amend a subamendment. I'm not overly keen on eight. I would have said maybe 12 would have been more reasonable, but I don't believe I can amend a subamendment. I think that eight, with the minister included in that, means only seven, and I just don't feel that's enough, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.