Agriculture committee  With all due respect—

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry, Ms. Mithani, but we have a limited amount of time. I appreciate that. To my question specifically, did you consult the Government of Prince Edward Island or the P.E.I. Potato Board before announcing the export ban on fresh potatoes from P.E.I.?

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that clarification. So did you have that conversation with the P.E.I. government before you made the announcement that you were going to be unable to...? It sounds like a no to me, since you were unable to answer that. What about the decision, then, Ms. Mithani, to declare that all of P.E.I. was infested with potato wart?

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not ready to give unanimous consent to start the study on number four at this time.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. You pretty much said exactly what I was saying. I think all of us will have some ideas for initiatives that we want to bring up. I don't have a problem with the ones that Mr. Perron has put forward, and I know Mr. MacGregor will have some as well as us. Can I suggest that we accept these notices of motion and bring these up, as well as other ideas, at our first subcommittee meeting in January or whenever you schedule that?

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. In the spirit of the season and in the spirit of giving, I will withdraw my motion and replace that with a gentleman's agreement, which I trust we will all abide by. We have come to an agreement that we will have a briefing—a two-hour meeting—on or before December 22.

Agriculture committee  I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. The member did call for the vote, so I think you have to call the vote.

Agriculture committee  In all fairness, I did have discussions with all the parties that this was going to be a motion for a meeting next week. It didn't seem to be a problem at all when we had discussions earlier this week. I'm a bit surprised that this is all of a sudden now a concern, but I was trying to get this done before Christmas.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think I was pretty clear in my discussion that this is extremely timely in that potatoes are perishable. We are not back until January 27. At that point, it's too late to have this discussion to find out what's going on. Why is it on the 22nd? These are professional bureaucrats, and a week is plenty of time to prepare an hour presentation.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to put forward a motion for, hopefully, a brief discussion. I have had discussions with all of the parties on this, so I don't suspect this will be a difficult discussion. My motion reads: That the committee hold a three-hour meeting by December 22, 2021, to hear one panel on the extreme flooding and landslides in the province of British Columbia for the first hour with the following witnesses: officials from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food and officials from the Department of Public Safety; and one panel on the interim suspension of certification of all potatoes originating from Prince Edward Island to the United States with the following witnesses: officials from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Premier of Prince Edward Island and the Minister of Agriculture and Land, and the P.E.I.

Agriculture committee  I nominate Kody Blois for chair.