Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm saying the word “precedence” so that I can find this in future years in the Hansard transcript.
We have found a loophole in the Standing Orders such that any committee—if I understand the ruling correctly—at the end of every meeting could suspend the meeting to essentially frustrate a Standing Order 106(4) request from being called over the summer, as an example. You could call a meeting, but all of a sudden, you're back in the suspension.
I don't believe the intention of the Standing Order 106(4) rule is that it does not take precedence and that it is supposed to be subservient to a suspension. I don't believe that's the initial interpretation. If this is in fact true and a ruling is confirmed here today and perhaps has even been used in other committee meetings, in the future, all that committees will have to do is suspend every meeting before there's a break, and they'll never have to deal with the substantive nature of a Standing Order 106(4) request.
I apologize for intervening before my friend Mr. Davies, as I understand he's waited a long time to chat, but I felt I was required to put it on the record that future parliaments may use this power in a different way from how the government intends to use it today—or perhaps in the same way, but even more aggressively.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.