Thank you very much, Chair.
I appreciate Mr. Barrett's concern with climate change. I think it's a great turnaround, and I look forward to working with him on Canadian climate change issues.
There are a couple of things I want to put on the record, Chair.
Firstly, the council that Mr. Barrett is talking about was created in 1992. When the opposition leader, Mr. Poilievre, was a cabinet minister under Stephen Harper, the last environment minister under Mr. Harper, and his colleague Mr. Poilievre, actually praised the council for the work it had done to help China tackle its environmental problems.
I think we need to be mindful of being consistent and clear in what we're trying to do. It's a little disingenuous for colleagues to put forward a motion that clearly contradicts the work of that previous government, now that they are in opposition.
The second point that I'd like to make, Chair, is that I really don't see the relevance of this motion in our committee. We are tasked quite clearly...I think our mandate is quite clear. As much as I appreciate Mr. Barrett's new-found love of tackling climate change, I think this is not an issue that belongs in this committee at all. In fact, I encourage him to take this to our environment committee or to many others. In this committee, we talk about access to information, privacy and ethics. We have a very specific mandate. I don't think this motion falls within that scope.
I would ask if you can consider it, but I'll leave my comments here and I look forward to the discussion with colleagues.