Thank you, Chair.
I want to state my concerns. I understand the costs associated with bringing witnesses in front of the committee, but if they really have no relevance here, I think it's an unfair burden on the taxpayers in terms of paying their travel expenses and the very real cost of this committee operating. We have a lot of people on duty when this committee sits.
For example, this morning Louise O'Sullivan came and wasn't really here to answer questions. She just had a message to deliver: “I had nothing to do with this.” That was it, but we paid for that. We all sat here, time ticked on, and this cost Canadian taxpayers money.
As for Ann Julie Fortier, we're looking at 2006 and she was from 2004. What are you guys thinking? She was here and didn't have much to offer.
Then of course we had our witness Mr. Martelli just after lunch, who was not part of the regional ad buy at all. He's not even on the list Monsieur LeBlanc brought up, but we're paying for him to be here. We've sat here all afternoon talking to a witness who was not relevant to the mandate of the committee, and we're asking taxpayers to pay for this.
So I'm very much in favour of what Mr. Wallace said. If the witnesses are in fact relevant to the mandate of this committee, we should absolutely pay for them, as we do with every other witness. But if we're just hauling in every Tom, Dick, and Harry because that's what the majority over there want, I think Canadians should know they're paying for that. They're paying for this little vendetta of the opposition to pull in witnesses who are not relevant.
It's a democracy. It's the tyranny of the majority, and you are the majority. That was stated by the Speaker of the House. I have to go through the chair, of course, so please pass on to Monsieur Nadeau that it was stated by the Speaker of the House himself that there is a tyranny of the majority on committees and it's leading to anarchy. Now it's leading to taxpayers paying for witnesses who are not necessarily relevant to the mandate of this committee, to the investigation, or to the hearings we have under way right now.
Thank you for your patience, Chair.