Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Coming back to this motion and amendment, I have to say that before some of the new members joined this committee I think we were all at the War Museum to celebrate and congratulate team Stimson on the design they proposed. I think we all had a great time at that opening ceremony at the War Museum. Some of us actually walked across the street to where the potential monument will be built.
In listening to the opposition saying that we are trying to delay this process, I hope this motion doesn't go through, for the fact that the construction process is still ongoing. In listening to some of the veterans I have met through this opportunity as a member of this committee, a lot of the Afghan veterans have stated that they don't want to wait any longer. If we are going to go back and fight against which team has a better design, I think we have heard clearly from our veterans that they feel the team Stimson design best reflects the Afghan war that happened to them. It's interesting to hear also how some of us don't want to delay this process, but it is still ongoing, and I think it is important to continue to carry out the work without going back.
I do understand that there was a study on the Afghan monument previously. Our minister was also present in the committee to speak about that. As much as we can go back and forth on this, I think it's important to really listen to our veterans, to be that representation and to take on that responsibility as members in this standing committee to really interpret the willingness of what the veterans want.
As much as there are other conflicts happening around the world right now, I think it's important for us to reflect that we don't want to see these conflicts happening, and it's unfortunate that at the same time we are trying to get this monument built. Now that we have a location set and a design set, if there are any consequences to what the jury has decided, I think that will go into a legal process like my colleague, MP Sean Casey, mentioned earlier. It's really important that we move on and continue to represent the veterans that we are representing and to reflect on what is more important than going back and forth with the partisanship game.
I think that with this amendment, going back to it, it's important that we get the full answer, of course, but without disrupting the current process of the construction, because it's important that we can see this built soon.
With that, Chair, I would think it's important that we also continue to listen to the voice of our veterans, making sure that there's no blame that we're making to our government to delay this whole process.
That's all I'd like to share. Thank you.