Thank you, Mr. Young.
As I said, I'm not going to call for a vote. I'm taking this as consensus that the committee agrees that I should present this motion for the summons.
Okay, thank you very much. That's item number one.
Item number two is that, in respect of the same issue, the clerk and I, I guess through the analysts, have received submissions from parties interested in intervening on this matter. As you know, we also contacted the Clerk of the Privy Council prior to Christmas with respect to his availability. I gave you an indication then that the clerk said he'd be prepared to come, but he could not come on those days because of his commitments to cabinet and the briefings to the Prime Minister. We all agreed that was fair.
We have contacted the clerk's office again, and there is an inclination to appear, but not until much later in the month. That inclination I thought was very positive. Somebody wants to help the committee understand the dynamics between that individual and the mandate, which is what we're dealing with.
Others have come forward. Some of you I think have talked to them. They tried to talk to me, and I wouldn't talk to them. They're the people from FAIR, Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform, which is the organization that deals with bureaucrats and how they deal within the bureaucracy. I said, “Whatever you have may be of interest, but I won't speak to you. I will raise the fact that you may be interested in giving the committee a perspective.” So I leave that out for you.
The previous Clerk of the Privy Council, Mr. Kevin Lynch, who is actually the one who issued the appointment, may be available, and an individual who is responsible for human resources at the PCO may be available. The reason I say “may be available” is that I'm inferring from the disposition of the current Clerk of the Privy Council that there is an inclination among our senior bureaucrats to appear before the committee if they are asked to. I would not speak to them until I had given you this indication that we have such people who are interested.
So the second item on our agenda would be whether there is disposition on the part of the committee to enlarge the number of people who might appear on this issue. Otherwise, we stay with Madame Ouimet and the Auditor General.
Mr. Saxton.