Declaration of Emergency committee  I think you've expressed that extremely well, sir.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you, Chair, and thanks to everybody.

Declaration of Emergency committee  If I understood your question, sir—and if not, please correct me—our municipal board is made up of three sitting councillors and a fourth civilian designated by the mayor. The mayor has the first right of refusal to sit on the board and can designate that to another councillor. In this case, Mayor Watson designated that to Councillor King.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Again, I can't speak to that, sir. There may have been; there may not have been. I just can't speak to it. I'm sorry, sir.

Declaration of Emergency committee  No, sir.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Absolutely, sir. In the closing comments of my opening statement, I spoke to that. That was a very real and live situation. I have great empathy and compassion for the people who approached me during my time in office to express their concerns and frustrations—and even stronger language.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I did, every day. My priority from the first 24 hours of seeing what arrived in my city was resources. My first indication of the scale of resources that we would need and the specialization and capabilities of those resources was on February 2, when I met with the public order commanders from my own organization, as well as other Ontario organizations.

Declaration of Emergency committee  It was expressed through the partners we had municipally, provincially and federally. No doubt, as professional as they are, they would have briefed their political channels. However, until I made the official announcement for the 1,800 that then went to the chair and the mayor and a signed letter to other two levels of government, we were working through the policing construct.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I've avoided that, sir, but you will see comments around more effective coordination certainly between police agencies and national security agencies in future events.

Declaration of Emergency committee  This is an approximation. I am aware that there are charts available that are being disclosed by the various agencies around that, including Ottawa police. I would say it's somewhere in the range of 500 to 600 officers in that time frame. Again, that's spread over a 24-hour cycle, so it's not 500 all the time who were available.

Declaration of Emergency committee  It is possible, because the numbers were significantly ramping up for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me. I believe on my last day in office, the staffing numbers that I saw the morning of February 15 put it in the range of 700 to 800 officers who were available in the theatre over that 24-hour period.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Again, I believe so, sir. Please understand that I just don't have the numbers.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Which question do you want me to answer first, sir? Do you want me to answer the question that you put about the protesters' statements?

Declaration of Emergency committee  I can't speak about the protesters' statements, so let me focus on the substantive policing question.

Declaration of Emergency committee  As I said before, there were 500 officers on whatever day that happened to be, split over three different shifts. That doesn't mean they were all available at the same time and at the different times you talked about. Let me also say that even in those early morning hours, when there were low numbers and officers tried to effect an enforcement action or any other action, many times they were swarmed and sometimes they were overwhelmed.