Declaration of Emergency committee  But it's always the best one.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much. Similarly, I'm a little bit concerned about a blanket.... I too would like to get a list of the witnesses and a list of what they've presented to date and when we expect to see those witnesses in the future before going through and asking for what's requested in this motion.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much. Thanks, Minister, again. This thing went on for weeks. I'm not sure that the Canadian public understands how difficult it is for police officers to start wearing through the 12 or 14-hour day, day after day, and why at some point something had to occur. Whether it's the Emergencies Act or something else is a discussion we'll have, but something had to happen to alleviate that.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I'm going to jump right into it, because you made a statement that it allowed for the use of RCMP officers and other officers from other services, but there is another alternative that we can swear them in as. I'm sure you have been involved in the swearing in of RCMP officers for G8 and G20 events.

Declaration of Emergency committee  That's perfect. Thanks for that. I didn't want to leave it out there that there was only one option. Can you tell us, in your 37 years of policing, give or take a couple of years, have you ever seen any event like this? You policed in Toronto, the biggest city in the country. Have you ever seen anything like this?

Declaration of Emergency committee  Quickly, we had legislation come from the other place into the Senate with regard to protests in relation to health officials, nurses and hospitals. There was consideration given in our legal committee to adding something to make it illegal to use vehicles to participate in those protests.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm finished.

Declaration of Emergency committee  If I may add, because the chair is going to stop me, did you express concerns with the mayor of Ottawa, who was negotiating with people who had become involved with criminal activity, to allow them to take certain land and further fortress it to give up other land?

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you, Minister.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thanks to the minister for being here today. I have a couple of quick questions. We talked about the invocation of the provincial emergency act, and the fact that I think maybe your words summarizing it had little or no impact. Did you have any discussions with them about going back to the well and adding some tools that you felt were missing from their original invocation?

Declaration of Emergency committee  Do you believe they should have had the discussion? Obviously, it didn't work. Proportionality is an important part of an emergencies act, whether it's provincial or federal. Obviously, their tools weren't proportional to the challenge if they weren't actually having an impact on the challenge.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you for that. In our discussions with the RCMP, we were told there was a plan in place to remove the convoy. In fact, we were told by the deputy commissioner that they believed that the plan would succeed in removing the convoy, blockade, or “fortressing”, as I've called it, in the downtown core.

Declaration of Emergency committee  If I may, Minister, prior to invoking the Emergencies Act, wouldn't we have wanted to see what their plan was going forward? Obviously, their plan for the first number of weeks didn't work, but we were told by the RCMP, which is a federal agency, that they actually had a plan that they felt was going to work just days prior to the invocation.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I think you're running two devices.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and, through you, thanks for the question. Post-2014, there were a number of us who were meeting when the discussion was on the development of legislation regarding parliamentary precinct security. At that time, we looked at a number of models, including the Capitol Hill police service in Washington, D.C., as being a potential model.