If I have to, it'll be a point of order. I have to reiterate that I understand the fact that you are a new chair, but we did ask at the beginning of the session that the Minister for National Revenue and the Minister of Finance appear. There doesn't seem to be a genuine effort on their part to appear or on the committee's part to make them appear. I'm not sure what the problem is.
The Minister of Finance was supposed to appear on Monday. That appearance was cancelled, but I understand that he appeared before the Senate committee. I'm not sure what the problem is there. This committee is available to meet at any time. I think it's an important committee.
I think the presence of the Minister of Finance is important for the independent budgetary office, especially since we're going to be voting on Bill C-2 again tomorrow, I think it is. There has to be an effort made to have the Minister of Finance here. I don't know what the answer is going to be, but if we're going to wait till the fall, I don't see what input we're going to have for that independent budgetary office.
Secondly, we also requested the Minister of National Revenue. The review of the CRA is going to drag on. We should have been able to complete it before we rose for the summer.
I also want to ask for the chair of the board to appear; and again, if the ministers are going to come and they're going to take the time, the least they could do is appear for at least an hour and a half to two hours so that all members, not just the opposing members, will have time to ask questions.
I haven't received any satisfactory answers. I've been requesting. I've been nice. I haven't tabled a motion, but if I need to, I'll table a motion, and if I have to filibuster, I'll filibuster. It's important that we get the ministers before the committee.
You can't function without having a minister before the committee. We understand we had him here for the budget. It was for an hour, and he had a five- or ten-minute opening, so that left us with 50 minutes to ask him questions on a budget document that was over 100 pages long.
I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but somehow I think I have to, because it's not acceptable that ministers don't appear before the committees that they're responsible for.