Your Honour, I wonder if you would indulge me to make a suggestion and to seek the view of the chamber. It has to do with the next item that is coming up and, of course, the point of order raised by Senator Dalphond a few minutes ago concerning the Committee of the Whole on estimates.

I fully appreciate that the Acting Speaker pro tempore had to take this under advisement. However, we are all aware that this is a matter of urgency, because the plan is to have Committee of the Whole with the President of the Treasury Board, as well as other ministers relevant to the issue of systemic racism, to take place on Monday, and we are not planning to sit on Friday.

I just want to make a suggestion — and, of course, it would require the other leaders and senators to consider — that if it were your interest and desire to suspend for a while to consider the point of order so that you could make a decision today, it would help us move things along. I think it’s in all of our interests to have a Committee of the Whole to review the estimates in their totality, in the way that the original motion that Senator Gagné had proposed and in the way Senator Omidvar has amended.

If I could add this, because the next motion touches on the same issue, Senator Omidvar has said to me that if, in fact, we go through this next motion from Senator Mégie, all senators have spoken and we get to a vote which, in fact, accepts the motion and agrees to a Committee of the Whole, as proposed by Senator Mégie, then Senator Omidvar would gladly withdraw the amendment she previously put forward.