I do appreciate that, and I do appreciate that people are busy. However, the minister was invited to a parliamentary committee. He was invited for today. It is customary that if ministers cannot show up at a meeting when they are invited, they provide an alternative date.
The fact that the minister has provided no alternative date is a complete demonstration of contempt for this committee, and as an extension, a contempt for Parliament. I hear my colleagues across the way say, well, if he doesn't show up next week or the next week or the next week, he'll eventually find it convenient to show up here. Frankly, we have a responsibility to hold the minister to account from time to time, and today our job is to ensure that he'll speak to people who have been appointed to this committee and duly elected to this House to answer questions with regard to his mandate and his responsibilities.
As I said, if he intended to show up, he would have offered an alternate date. I think it's highly problematic that he hasn't provided any indication as to whether he will ever show up. Simply saying that we'll leave it up to his earliest convenience leaves it wide open that he may not show up at all.
I would hope that the members opposite would already be on the phone, looking to contact their colleague to see if he wouldn't make himself available so that this debate could end. Clearly he has no intention of showing up, and nobody across the way seems to be making any effort to find out when he would be available. Often somebody on the other side, having spoken to the minister, would know when he would or would not be available. It seems clear that there is a desire not to see the minister attend this meeting any time soon.