Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I guess I'm just a little bit surprised at some of the comments.
Mr. Ménard, Mr. Lee, and Ms. Jennings have been here as long as I have. If you're being honest, you cannot say that this has never happened before, and it's something that is possibly expected when you have a minister coming to a committee meeting. We've been on hundreds of committee meetings over the last 15 years, and this is definitely not the first time a message has come from the minister's office at the last moment that something has come up that the minister has to do and can we sort of rearrange it.
Honestly, on every committee I've ever sat on, without exception, we've always done whatever we could to accommodate a minister's timetable. I am speaking of the previous government, the Liberal minister's timetable--in every case. To be honest with yourself, this is not unusual. To be honest with yourself again, you know in the past you have always done everything you could to accommodate a minister. This is not an unusual request. To question why a minister has to ask for a little exception to his schedule in making changes...I can't remember a committee I've ever served on where this happened, where we went into a long debate as to why the minister couldn't make it, for a legitimate reason. The minister says he or she can't make it. We've accepted that in the past. It's precedent-setting.
I think this conversation is a little unusual. Why don't we just think about our past committee history and make accommodation for the minister to see us today at the time he's available?
Thank you.