Thank you.
What we debated at the last meeting on Tuesday was the fact that the motion that was moved by the Conservatives really didn't encompass the ability for all parties to have their witnesses. In this amendment I've incorporated the Bloc's—Mr. Barsalou-Duval's—amendment, with the three names that were proposed. I incorporated Mr. Bachrach's amendment in part c), which stipulates the number of meetings. I left all of the Conservative witnesses, with the exception of the witnesses who have already agreed. It think it is heavy-handed to send a summons to a witness who has already agreed. We discussed all of that and we have just simply removed those names. I've incorporated all of the amendments by my colleagues, cleaned up the summons in the original Conservative motion to remove those who have already agreed to appear and left the timing exactly as the original motion proposed.
In addition to that, which was always what we were arguing for and why our colleagues here argued to send this to the subcommittee, all we wanted was to ensure that we had our witnesses as well. We've added the witnesses that the Liberals would like to be summoned, as well as strongly urging these additional witnesses, whom we had previously proposed. I think this is a very fair and reasonable path forward. It has encompassed everyone's requests. Instead of what I think happened at the last meeting, where we were just supposed to accept without having the ability on our side, or on all sides frankly, to contribute to what we felt was the functioning in how we were going to structure these meetings.
Again, this is a unanimous vote in terms of having the study. We had no issues with the witnesses who were coming, but what we wanted was clarity on the number of meetings and to ensure that our witnesses were also included so that there was proportionality—which is a standard practice on committees—and then that we incorporated the other parties' recommendations and amendments as well.
I hope this moves us forward so that we can get to the important study that we are here to study today.