Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I might just add my voice to that of some of my colleagues. There are two points in particular that rub me the wrong way when it comes to the proposed motion.
I think chiefly my concern is about the precedent that this would set to start bringing more junior staff within political offices than those we've already heard testify. The Prime Minister of Canada and his chief of staff were here during this meeting. I've seen what has happened when we have had civil servants brought before the committee and badgered in a manner that I think is the kind of thing that will cause civil servants to more broadly be careful about giving open and honest feedback to governments. I don't appreciate the practice this committee has implemented in their treatment of certain witnesses. I think we will potentially go down the same path should we continue to pull more junior staff as witnesses in this testimony.
I also want to raise the point that we don't actually have any evidence that there's been an effort by anyone at the political level to influence the workings of the civil service. If I heard evidence to that testimony, I would think otherwise. Starting to request documents that are subject to cabinet confidence when there's no evidence whatsoever that they will suggest what the opposition has been hinting they might suggest, I don't think is a useful exercise for the purposes of this committee. For that reason, I won't be supporting the motion.
Thank you very much.