Yes, Mr. Chair.
What I'm getting to is what I believe our authority as a committee is, in terms of our right to deal with this issue. That's the whole argument coming forward from Minister Baird and Parliamentary Secretary Mr. Poilievre.
I question sometimes why we would have the Minister of Transport trying to come before a committee to represent Mr. Soudas, who works for the Prime Minister's Office, when Mr. Poilievre is the parliamentary secretary and would I think be in a better position to know what Mr. Soudas does than the Minister of Transport.
In any event, as I said at an earlier meeting, Mr. Chair, Mr. Hill, the leader of the government in the House of Commons, said “We recognize that committees do have the authority to call for persons and papers”. We do have that authority, and that's what this hearing is all about.
Mr. Baird tried to come here to spin the government line. I'm saying here what our rights really are as a committee.
The last point I want to make is that the individual who is supposed to be here today.... There is much made of ministerial staff who are young and inexperienced. Mr. Soudas, who has been, as you mentioned at the beginning of the meeting...he can't be found. He's in hiding somewhere in Langevin Block.
I think the minister makes the point—