Thank you, Mr. Baird, good morning and welcome.
I have several questions for you. I would ask you, if possible, to give me brief answers, because we only have eight and a half minutes at our disposal.
I will begin my comments by paraphrasing the Auditor General, if I may. And I want to say clearly that this is a paraphrase and not a quote. When referring to the sponsorship scandal, she said something along these lines: every rule in the book was broken. The rules therefore existed, and they were broken. I congratulate you for creating new rules, but these rules will be respected if and when the political will exists to ensure it.
On the highway, the speed limit is 100 km an hour. We can go ahead and adopt a new rule to further control speeders, but if it is not respected or no penalties are imposed... We can have all the lovely rules that you are proposing and this big document with 317 sections covering 250 pages, but what is needed is political will. And only time and experience will tell whether it is present. That was not a question.
Here is my first question. Alfonso Gagliano told us that a minister is not responsible for his department. Reg Alcock told us that a minister is responsible for his department. In your opinion, is a minister responsible for his department and his actions or is he not?