Mr. Speaker, I recall in an earlier exchange with the member for Winnipeg North that he talked about how it was not good to give this special committee special instructions. As was mentioned earlier, we have often given committees instructions. We have given them very strict timelines to conduct a study, told them how many witnesses we want them to have and so on. Therefore, it is by no means out of the ordinary to have some kind of a parameter with respect to what we want a special committee to study. It has been done multiple times.
This is for my friend from British Columbia, my fellow colleague. At the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, we studied the sudden shut off of the canola market for our farmers. In one fell swoop we had lost 40% of our export market. I remember when we had ministers and departmental officials come before the committee. Often we were straying so close to the territory that came under the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, but we wanted to really keep on going. However, the mandate of our standing committee kept us tied strictly to agriculture.
I would like to hear his comments on the importance of weaving all these different threads together. As he said, this is an opportunity for a hung Parliament to come together, to bring forward a comprehensive report and deliver some clear recommendations on what is a very important relationship in our international relations.