I'm sticking to the subamendment, Mr. Chair. Respectfully, I'm making arguments by looking at general points and principles that I think will serve to remind my colleagues about the importance of our job here.
I talked about partisanship. Let's put partisanship aside and embrace the very important idea at the heart of parliamentary democracy, and that is that we have a job and duty to serve the country. When we...and I fear we do this if we get behind the Conservative proposal, and that's why this subamendment is so important.
Let's allow public servants to speak. They serve the country. They serve all Canadians, all our constituents, regardless of whether those constituents voted Conservative, Bloc, Liberal, NDP or Green. Those public servants deserve our respect. Having them come to committee does not compromise the principles I spoke about before, which hold together each party.
The business class and business interests and advocacy groups that stand up for large business and small business—and I especially care about small business—won't be offended if we have public servants come to committee.
Unions will not be offended. Mr. Julian is a champion of unions. PSAC, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, will not be offended. I don't think they'll be offended if public servants come to committee.