Thank you very much.
I have just one single motion, Chair, and I think all committee members should have a copy of the motion in front of them.
Is that true, Mr. Chan, as well? Good.
As committee members will know, there was a bit of a mistake made at the finance department a little while ago. What seems to have taken place—and this has been confirmed by the minister as well—is that there was a premature release of public information about the fall economic update.
There were two primary concerns that were raised for us initially, because this has been alluded to before, when the Liberals were in government and concerns came from Conservatives in opposition at the time. I'll speak very briefly.
One concern was whether there were any particular impacts on the market. The information was up on the finance department's website for only for a few minutes, I think—15 minutes according to the minister—and then was taken down. We didn't know what the information contained. Essentially what was done is that the wrong press release was sent out, and it contained a number of details that were not in the forthcoming legislation. What appears to have happened is that the finance department then got that secondary piece of legislation ready quickly, overnight I assume, and brought forward a motion in the House the next day to introduce it to catch up to what had been revealed publicly.
Now, our first concern was impact on the market. Was anybody able to use the information that they were able to glean in those 15 minutes before it was withdrawn to take some advantage?
I just received this now, Chair, a letter from the minister that I'm happy to distribute. We had written to the minister to clarify first, in terms of that concern around the impact on the market. I feel assured and satisfied with the minister's response that an assessment has taken place internally and that there was no impact, and I think the tax provisions that were accidentally released were unlikely to have any significant impact on anybody's investment decisions.
The second question that I raised with him in my correspondence has not yet been addressed, and that's what this motion also deals with, to invite the minister to come forward to explain how....
Oh, to our witnesses, please come forward and make yourselves comfortable while I prattle on.
The motion is to invite the minister to come forward at a time that is convenient for him to explain how this can't happen in the future, what specific measures are being taken internally to assure...because I would essentially say we got a bit lucky, Chair. If there had been some more substantive measures that had accidentally been released before legislation was presented in Parliament, even if it had been for 30 seconds, as we all know with the digital age that we live in, it could have caused an advantage in the market and a distortion within the market in Canada—particularly large tax measures, and particularly spending initiatives that the government was going to do. I don't want to take potentials, just what we're dealing with right now.
That's the motion. I spoke to the minister briefly today after question period to assure him there is no political motivation in this. This is for the finance department to assure us, as committee members dealing with financial issues, and the broader Canadian public, and the market in particular, that a slip of a computer mouse can't lead to the government releasing sensitive tax information well ahead of when the government has legislation ready and prepared to back it up.
That's what the motion says. We don't ascribe any particular date or a deadline, but certainly, I would imagine this is in the government's interest as well to say that this is the way this can't happen again, and let's be good rather than lucky when it comes to releasing financial information to the broader Canadian public.
That's it for me.