We're resuming the meeting after suspending for a fire alarm.
As I was saying, I referred members to the procedure book under “Committees and Questions of Procedure and Privilege”. I'm going to repeat myself. We're 16 hours into this now. Section 20.110 states:
In addition, the Chair may, at their discretion, interrupt a member whose observations and questions are repetitive or are unrelated to the matter before the committee. If the member in question persists in making repetitive or off-topic comments, the Chair can give the floor to another member.
Given the length of this debate and what I deem as some repetitive comments, I'm going to be exercising that authority. Again, as I said earlier, I try to give a lot of latitude no matter what we're doing because I believe fundamentally that the member's time is the member's time, but when a member drones on and carries on into repetition, that becomes a problem for me.
Anybody who's been part of this committee for as long as I've been chair knows that whether it's a discussion on any study that we're doing, debate or questioning, I give a lot of latitude, but I'm going to narrow that latitude quite a bit as we move forward.
Next on the list on the subamendment which involves Mr. Imbleau coming to committee, not the executives, not the finance minister's wife, nobody but Mr. Imbleau coming before this committee on the issue of the finance minister's ethics screen, is Mr. Cooper.
Mr. Cooper, go ahead, please.