Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm certainly pleased to welcome our guests here this afternoon. As I mentioned last week, we are a committee of Parliament, and Parliament is an institution of accountability, not management. I have some concerns about our asking questions and having witnesses today from Envoy Relocation or Royal Lepage. We know absolutely nothing about their participation in this contract. We only have the report of the Auditor General on the government side.
On the other thing that concerns me, I understand that a lawsuit has already been filed. If that is the case, I'm trying to figure out why on earth we are getting ourselves into the middle of this.
You will recall the need for us to be independent of government and the courts. Not only do we have a longstanding tradition of never getting involved in issues when there are legal proceedings ongoing, but I also draw your attention to the time when Mr. Justice Gomery wanted to get transcripts of the public accounts committee hearings in the past and was denied. We certainly wouldn't want answers here by Envoy and Royal Lepage to be drawn into a court proceedings, and so on.
I move that we not hear from Envoy and Royal Lepage today because I think it's quite inappropriate.