Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Certainly we can ask questions in question period; however, he's a new minister and we all have many questions. I think this is a misinterpretation of what the standing orders of this committee are and I think we would be off to a very bad first round. If Madam Lavallée thinks we're going to be able to get the minister back when she says he's going to come back, because she calls him back, well, I've been around here long enough to know that when a minister decides he's not coming back, we wait and we wait and we wait.
The offer has been made. I think it's an offer in good faith. There will be issues on which we want him to come back in the future, and we will no doubt put in a 48-hour notice, but I'm asking you as chair to rule on this because I think she is misinterpreting the standing regulations.
They certainly made efforts to speak to each one of our parties about this in advance. If the committee hadn't been struck, it would have been impossible to bring this in on 48 hours' notice. They did make every effort.
We defer to you. I think this is a good way to start off our committee hearings. More questions will be given. We need to move on. I think you need to overrule this objection.