Point of order.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Siksay is asking a question that deals with things outside of the witness's realm. As he stated earlier, he was hired under the Public Service Employment Act. In O'Brien and Bosc, chapter 20, page 1068, it says:
Particular attention is paid to the questioning of public servants. .... Consequently, public servants have been excused from comments on the policy decisions made by government.
So if we're going to start asking these types of questions, it's definitely outside the realm of Mr. Giorno, our witness, to comment on those, and I think he should be excused from answering that. Committees ordinarily accept the reasons that public servants give for declining to answer a specific question or series of questions that involve the giving of a legal opinion that may be perceived as a conflict of interest with the witness's responsibility to the minister. I think that definitely applies here. He is hired under the Public Service Employment Act and that line of questioning is out of order.