The House of Commons defence committee will hold a public meeting before Parliament resumes to study whether Canada is prepared for the threat posed by North Korea.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, committee members agreed to an amended version of a motion that proposed to hold an emergency session following weeks of aggressive posturing by U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

“Canadians are talking about North Korea and what’s going on and they want answers to some of those questions,” said Liberal MP and committee member Mark Gerretsen. “That was the whole idea behind changing the amendment to making it a public hearing, so Canadians have the opportunity to hear from the subject matter experts as to what’s going on.”

The original wording of the motion, presented by the Conservative and New Democrat members, asked the committee to examine “Canada’s current threat assessment of North Korea,” as well as “Canada’s ability to defend itself and our allies in the event of an attack … on the North American continent using intercontinental missiles, conventional weapons and/or non-conventional weapons of mass destruction.”

It had originally asked to “immediately convene” emergency hearings on the matter, with the goal of getting defence experts before the committee before the House of Commons returns on September 18.

Gerretsen offered an amendment to that motion that proposed holding a public meeting within 45 days, a meeting which would include subject matter experts along with defence experts.

He tightened that timeline to 30 days and specified that the meeting will take place before the House returns after a brief back-and-forth with opposition members.

No date has been set for the meeting yet; the committee went in-camera following the vote and was expected to discuss the issue of timing today.

It is believed the most likely date for the meeting would be over the week before the House returns, given members of the committee will be travelling during the first week of the sitting.

When asked whether he believes Canada is prepared to deal with possible military threats from North Korea, Gerretsen said he wouldn’t comment before the committee has had the chance to study the matter.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan also did not say whether he thinks Canada is prepared, but said Canadians “have doubts” in light of the “sabre-rattling” between the U.S. and North Korea over the summer.

He also would not say whether he believes the time has come for Canada to explore joining the Americans in their ballistic missile defence program, which the government declined to do in 2005 and did not pursue under the former Conservative government.

“The situation has evolved and as long as there is this change in threat, then it’s up to the Government of Canada to make determinations about how best to protect Canadians,” Bezan said.

“This is very, very concerning that the North Koreans continue to go down this path. I think the UN sanctions that were just passed that involves the cooperation of China is going to cripple the economy of North Korea completely. The cutback on coal shipments is going to unfortunately hurt the civilians in North Korea but I think it is the only way that we can get any kind of message sent to the leadership of North Korea that their current path is unacceptable.”

The UN Security Council voted unanimously earlier this month to implement a new round of sanctions targeting North Korea’s key revenue streams and exports, including coal, seafood and joint ventures with foreign companies.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said in a statement at the time that the sanctions will reduce the Hermit Kingdom’s $3 billion annual export revenue by roughly $1 billion and constitute “the strongest sanctions ever imposed in response to a ballistic missile test.”