Thank you, Mr. Chair.
During my last intervention, I forgot to congratulate you on being elected chair. I would like to do so now and also welcome the new members to the committee.
Like my two NDP colleagues, I think it is a good idea to add the technical briefings to the list of reasons why it would be appropriate to sit in camera. We were able to work well together in the last session. We managed to address important issues. We tabled a report on privacy and social networks, important work that I think Canadians appreciated because it is something they are concerned about.
We were able to study the Conflict of Interest Act, which was very interesting and very necessary. We were able to work together to do good things, even though we sat in camera. I do not think we should be afraid of sharing the work we do with Canadians.
I remember the consensus that technical briefings need to be held in camera. You know, we can come to a consensus on things like this. However, we are finding that we are too often deciding to sit in camera simply so people won't know we voted against something worthwhile. Asking to sit in camera has become automatic for government members.
When my colleague Mr. Andrews spoke about one technical briefing in particular, I believe it had to do with the Conflict of Interest Act, a very complex piece of legislation. I think about 100 amendments were suggested by the various witnesses. It is a good think we were able to meet in camera to ask the commissioner questions in order to get some clarification because it was very complicated. However, we had a consensus on that. We were willing to work together.
I honestly hope that we—and this includes our new members and our new chair—can continue to work together in a more transparent way. That is what we are talking about today. The purpose of this motion is to move forward and continue to work together transparently. As I said, we should not be ashamed of what we are doing here. No, we should be very proud of it.
The amendment that my colleague proposed raises some concerns. Will there be abuse or not? I do not know, but I believe we will be able to work together, that there will be a consensus and that, when something very complex comes up and we will need to ask sometimes embarrassing questions, we will be able to proceed that way.
I would like to take this opportunity to respond to Mr. Gourde, who said that he would not support this motion because each committee should have the right to decide on its own how it will operate. What are we doing today? We are deciding how we will operate. By passing this motion, we can decide that our committee, which deals with ethics, will be transparent and that every meeting will not systematically take place in camera. If we want to decide on how we are going to operate, today is the day to do it. I invite Mr. Gourde to move forward with that in mind and to decide that the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics will operate transparently.
I reiterate my support for this motion. Adding technical briefings is a good idea, and we can include it in our motion, no problem. It respects the desire to work together, to move forward, to do good work and to share it with the public without systematically sitting in camera.