Thank you very much, Chair.
I'm going to try to play my role in the committee of making peace between the Liberals and Conservatives here. First of all, while I disagree with the Conservatives on the necessity of the use of the Emergencies Act, I do agree with them that there are questions, serious questions, that this committee needs answers to regarding the last two and a half weeks.
I don't believe that officials using an hour of their time to appear before our committee, especially with Zoom technology, will in any way impact the day-to-day ground operations going on in Ottawa. They have deputies. They have commanders in the field to take care of that. They are very capable and professional organizations. But I do believe sincerely that, as per the wording of the motion that this committee adopted earlier this week, we do need to have answers about the coordination of various law enforcement agencies, the intelligence and all of the failures—let's be clear here, the failures—that led to the situation we now find ourselves in where the Emergencies Act is necessary.
Mr. Chair, I'll end by saying that I am open to supporting the subamendment to my amendment to Ms. Dancho's motion, but I guess I want some clarification from you or the clerk as per the original motion. When the clerk reads, “as soon as possible”, what does that mean in a technical sense? It's my understanding that the clerk has now been authorized to schedule these meetings. He's probably working to get them done as soon as possible. Therefore, is the debate we're having today a moot point? I'd just like some clarification from the clerk on whether we've had any responses for next week, etc.
I'll leave it there, Mr. Chair.