Mr. Speaker, I need to warm up.
Maybe we could look at the membership of this committee. The intergovernmental affairs minister has said that this committee has regional balance to ensure the views of all Canadians will be
represented. How is that possible when seven out of the nine committee members are from central Canada, when the west's only representative is a junior minister who won her seat by 11 votes and when British Columbia, the third most populous province in the country, is not even represented on the committee?
About the only positive thing that can be said about this committee is that the Deputy Prime Minister is not a member.
If this committee is supposed to effectively represent every region of the country, why does the west have only one seat and British Columbia no seat at all?