Thank you very much. I would like to welcome you both back.
As you know, I have a line of questioning that is often very rapid, and if I interject to bring my time back, it's certainly not personal. I do have some questions that may feel personal at times. I'm going to put it to you that the questions are not intended that way.
I want to begin on the topic of sponsored travel. This was certainly an issue that I raised back in October in referencing the earlier testimony regarding Stephen Ellis, Rosemarie Falk, Philip Lawrence, Shannon Stubbs, and John Williamson. For me, this committee can hopefully come to a recommendation to eliminate sponsored travel. I'm going to state that.
There's ambiguity on the topic of what is material and what is not material, what is accepted, what is not accepted, who is funding what, what is being done indirectly that can't be done directly, and I reference our ongoing conversations around foreign interference and the impacts that it has on our democracy. When I hear you talk about what is lavish in terms of material, I'm from Hamilton Centre and I would put it to you that $3,400 for champagne and wine is lavish and $1,000 for a steak dinner is lavish, and I think it's completely unacceptable in the context of the work that we do.
What I would propose to this committee right off the bat, for those who are interested in actually changing the page on these ongoing sagas of what I think are scandals that take away from the legitimacy of our democracy, is the elimination of sponsored travel and its replacement with two international travel credits on our MOB, free of any kind of idea of influence, whether foreign, corporate, or otherwise. This would allow us to do our work in international diplomacy in a clear and transparent way.
On the topic of clarity and transparency, I've heard you refer to the confidential nature of the consultations, Mr. von Finckenstein. Do you believe that we could contemplate at this committee a process that is more transparent, perhaps one that would include, for the purpose of the public good, a public disclosure of requests to your office on the content of people's inquiries, or is it your opinion that confidentiality is a cornerstone of your office and is required in order for you to be able to do your work correctly?