Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to make a connection with the motion at hand. We're talking about the part of the motion that seeks to mobilize a number of departments. We're no longer talking about the amendment I proposed. We're talking about the part of the motion that's directly related to my amendment and that asks a number of departments to do research to provide the committee with internal and external emails, briefing notes, professional text messages, messages sent on the Teams application, transitory documents, drafts that had been exchanged and other communications between employees at various levels of the organizations. This is a considerably expensive request. The administrative cost of such a request comes mainly from sorting and checking. There are also legal checks to do, because it's important to be careful about what can be disclosed. Personal and sensitive information has to be protected.
This request represents millions of dollars. I know the Conservatives don't like it when I repeat the reasons why they challenged the chair to prevent my amendment from being moved. However, the part of the motion that calls on the government to provide documents to the committee goes beyond the committee's mandate. If this request is adopted, hundreds of public servants will be mobilized. That's thousands of staff-hours. During that time, those employees won't be doing their usual work. We have to implement programs and respond to Canadians. Mobilizing a single department in this way will hinder the entire supply chain of service delivery for Canadians. I was parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Citizens' Services, and I had the opportunity to tour across Canada. I can tell you that the employees are dedicated—