Mr. Chair, I understand the parliamentary secretary's efforts to make sure he is there. Clearly, it outlined that it was there. In the last Parliament there were four, three from the opposition and one from the government, and it was based on the composition of that particular Parliament.
I heard Mr. Hoback say that the numbers are such, but clearly the steering committee is only an advisory body that says what it thinks the agenda should be. If the agenda is not satisfactory to the committee, on which the government side owns the majority of the votes, they will say no. I would expect that. I wouldn't expect them to agree to something they didn't want to do.
As Mr. Valeriote said, as we go forward, or at least as we start, let's see if we can work out an agenda for the first session in the fall that talks about the things we all agree we want to do. If there is that sense of cooperation, it bodes well for the committee going into the future.
I agree that the parliamentary secretary should sit on the steering committee. That should be his role. The chair should be there as well as an active participant, rather than an impartial chair as proposed by Mr. Lemieux.
My preference would be to leave it at four and to continue on, hopefully with a sense that we intend to go forward working on things on which all of us are in agreement.
I think we can do that. Certainly on our side that's our intention. I can't speak for anyone other than us, but the intention we have is to go forward in that way.