It won't be for a very long time: You're fine.
I appreciate the reminder by the NDP member.
My point in raising all of this is that is what I had hoped to discuss in committee business today, as opposed to something that has been hashed and rehashed again and again by the Ethics Commissioner, by this committee, by that committee, by the House of Commons, with no end in sight.... What I'm trying to say is that the Ethics Commissioner—three times—indicated that this matter is closed, that he has nothing to see, that there is nothing to investigate here, that he has conducted his investigation and has found nothing at the end of the day on the minister's part.
I'll also say, Mr. Chair, that it's been nine years for me as a member of Parliament. I go to hundreds of events. In fact, over this past year, I think I've attended over a thousand events within my community. I take photos with hundreds and thousands of people on a regular basis, who post these photos out of love, out of respect. I post their photos with me out of love and respect as well, but the perception of a close tie is not always a close tie in reality.
I think the work of the Ethics Commissioner has been really strong on this issue, because he has been asked time and time again to look into this issue. There have been multiple times when the minister himself has been questioned about this, yet we're still exactly where we were in the beginning, where the Ethics Commissioner still says that there's no investigation to be had here and where the minister has been very firm and has stayed consistent in what he's had to say, and yet we are yet again using important committee resources to rehash an issue.
In the motion here specifically, the member, Mr. Barrett, has listed Ms. Ghaoui as one of the witnesses, when we know that she has already agreed and has expressed an interest in appearing at this committee. I'm not sure why she is on the witness list. It makes no sense to me when somebody has said, “I'm coming. I want to come. Invite me. Let's go”, and yet here we are, trying to create this perception that people are not being collaborative.
Mr. Majumdar, if you want to laugh, that's absolutely fine, but just go to a corner, please, so I'm not distracted, if that's okay.
Minister Boissonnault has appeared twice—