Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have no problem with transparency, obviously, but I have some concern when we will be publishing something that has been sent to us without the sender knowing that it will be public.
So I'm putting myself in the shoes of those who are writing to us. Do they know that the communications they send us will be made public?
I'm in no position to judge whether the information they provide is confidential or whether it comes from a business or community group. However, I do believe these individuals are telling us about their condition, perhaps not their “emotional” state, but they are nonetheless providing their take on the situation. They're sharing that information with us, but do they know it will be made public? That's what concerns me.
Perhaps we should check each document. The people sending us information certainly know that MPs are not doctors or bank managers. Perhaps they should expect that it will be made public. However, I feel it's best to make sure, because once the information is in the public realm, it's hard to walk it back.
That said, I'd like to warn you about discussions between various groups, like email that we send to each other. Sometimes we cut corners. I wouldn't want any information sent that way to end up in a newspaper headline.
Mr. Chair, you're an experienced MP. You can assess whether it's better if certain items that might be contentious or personal, among other things, did not end up on the front page of Le Journal de Montréal or Le Journal de Québec.
That's always my barometer when I'm about to hit Send: Would it be okay with me if my message ended up on the front page of those newspapers? You have to think about it.