Thank you, Chair.
I will just speak briefly to the motion.
We all recognize that we have a constitutional responsibility as members of Parliament to scrutinize the estimates. The cost estimates for the justice legislation obviously must have been prepared before the legislation went to cabinet. Cabinet has made a public decision to support that legislation, but we are denied as legislators the opportunity to determine our support with that information.
The cost estimates are not covered by cabinet confidence because at the end of the day probably the greatest responsibility of Parliament is to scrutinize and oversee the public purse and ensure that tax dollars are spent wisely. Cost estimates are used by each department in ways that are not directly related to cabinet, and as such are not covered under cabinet confidence.
As another example, the projections of corporate profits before taxes and effective corporate income tax rates are used by the department in ways that are not directly related to cabinet and are not covered by cabinet confidence. I have a precedent on this, and not only one precedent. There are innumerable precedents on this.
If you go to November of 2005, the economic and fiscal update, the last one during the good old days, on page 83 of the economic--