The committee, under Standing Order 108, has the right to call for persons, papers, or records. It's a subdelegation. In fact, the amendment that we're dealing with, with regard to the chair's authorization, is the precise motion we passed at the Mulroney-Schreiber hearings because the committee was concerned that, as the clerk and the chair tried to find witnesses, the only way it could issue a summons would be to come before the committee to get the approval of a motion to summons a witness, which meant we'd have to bring everybody to Ottawa to have a meeting just to get authorization for a summons. The solution to that was simply to authorize the chair.
On July 16th, 2008. See this statement in context.