Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciated Mr. Fraser and Ms. Dzerowicz's comments. As always, they put it very eloquently, but I respectfully disagree.
In terms of access to information, as Mr. Fraser mentioned, providing the parliamentary counsel with that determination is something that is relatively commonplace with committees.
As to Ms. Dzerowicz's comments, the reality is that we were given the stewardship of the financial outlay through this pandemic. That's our responsibility. Parliament gave this finance committee the charge or the stewardship over all government expenditures related to COVID-19, so this is just doing our job.
I think the Ethics Commissioner may be looking into whether or not there is an ethical violation. This is a question of financial procedure, financial control, and these questions deserve answers, in the same way that we may find there are other issues that come up in the coming months that, as stewards of the financial outlay of the federal government, the finance committee is called upon to look into. The House of Commons directed us that way; that's our responsibility.
Hopefully we'll get answers in the coming weeks. I don't think a one-month timeline is, by any means, too onerous, but we'll have the answers and that will be responding to the stewardship that was given to us by the House of Commons back in March, at the beginning of the pandemic.
We don't know how long this pandemic is going to continue. We don't know what other programs may need to be brought forward to deal with the pandemic. We have the responsibility, any time there are unanswered questions, to delve a little bit deeper and get the information. That's what this motion is endeavouring to do.