Chair, I won't take very long. I just want to say first of all that I'm trying to be proactive. In fact, early on in the life of this committee in this Parliament we had supplementary estimates come in front of committee, and the opposition didn't ask for the minister until it was almost time to have them deemed reported back to the House. We got the minister in, but it took a lot to clear his schedule and have him come in, etc.
I'm trying to be proactive here and say we have the supplementaries, so why don't I look at the minister's schedule, find out when he is available, and get him in here so that it works well for us and it works well for him. He's not obligated to be here, but I think it's nice for him to come, and he has come in the past. I think it's important that he come. So if we can synchronize schedules, why not?
The second thing I want to say is that, contrary to what Malcolm said, it is an open field when it comes to asking questions of the minister or of the department when they're here to study the estimates. I cannot think of a single case where there has ever been an objection to a question posed to the minister or the department when they were here for estimates.
The third thing I want to say is that I'm impressed that the opposition actually wants to look at the estimates themselves when the minister is here, because Chair, that is not generally the way it's done. Normally it is a wide open field.
Chair, what I would propose is the following. Unless the opposition says, “No, we do not want the minister, we absolutely do not want him Thursday morning”—in which case I cannot guarantee that he'll be able to come back at a time that aligns with the committee—my proposal would be that we have the minister come on Thursday morning, because that's when he's available to come. So why not have him come in front of committee, and then we'll see after that. But if the opposition says, “Absolutely not on Thursday morning”, then okay, absolutely not on Thursday morning. But there are no guarantees either, because now we have to go back and find other dates that align with the committee and with us.
My recommendation, Chair, is to have the minister come, have the department come. There is no harm in that at all. It gives the opposition an opportunity and it gives Canadians an opportunity to hear directly from the minister and the department, and that's just a good thing.