Thank you, Mr. Long.
I'll just take a moment of the committee's time here to advise members, as we have some new members here. As your chair, I don't like to tell members of Parliament what they can or can't do, but I will read something out of O'Brien and Bosc. We have some department officials here, and I asked the clerk to find the paragraphs with regard to the line of questioning that was happening.
I'm passing no judgment on this. I just want members to be aware of what it says:
There are no specific rules governing the nature of questions which may be put to witnesses appearing before committees
—which is fine—
beyond the general requirement of relevance to the issue before the committee.
So it should be relevant and so on. It goes on to state that “Witnesses must answer all questions”, and the paragraph goes on to talk about compelling a witness to answer a question. However, it also moves on to talk about department officials:
Particular attention is paid to the questioning of public servants. The obligation of a witness to answer all questions put by the committee must be balanced against the role that public servants play in providing confidential advice to their Ministers. The role of the public servant has traditionally been viewed in relation to the implementation and administration of government policy, rather than the determination of what that policy should be. Consequently, public servants have been excused from commenting on the policy decisions made by the government.
Some of the questions that I'm hearing from some members at the table today might be at that point. I'm just urging members to stick to more technical questions in regard to the implementation of the policy to find the facts and tease out the information. We'll have ministers who can come and talk more broadly about whether or not the policy is actually fair. I don't think we should be putting our public servants in that kind of a quandary, if we can help it, but I will be fair. If the public servants wish to answer those questions, they are more than able to. I will not intervene.
I'm just leaving that there for the edification of the committee members.