As I said earlier, I certainly appreciate his interventions. I would remind him that the subamendment was moved by Mr. Genuis. At the time, I thought it was kind of interesting. This speaks directly to the question of the relevance of Mr. Perkins' remarks to the subamendment moved by his Conservative colleague Mr. Genuis, when he was touring our committee.
There were two things I thought were interesting about it.
First of all, Mr. Genuis said we needed to hear from the Minister of Public Safety to address the question of an office being established to fight foreign interference, which was announced—he said—because it's in the budget implementation act. What I found interesting about that claim is that it's false, because it's not in the budget implementation act. I suspect Mr. Genuis, who himself noted that his expertise is in foreign affairs, missed this. I think it is common for a lot of people who aren't an integral part of the process on a regular basis to not realize that a lot of what's announced in the budget doesn't appear immediately in the subsequent budget implementation act. Often, people conflate the budget document with the budget implementation act. I think Mr. Genuis did that.
That's an important reminder for all of us parliamentarians, when we substitute on other committees: Be properly briefed instead of walking in and throwing our weight around when we don't really know what we're talking about.
Were there mention of such an office in the budget implementation act, or anything to do with it, then the idea, of course, would be that we would send it to other committees, as we've suggested doing with other content.
I hear what Mr. Perkins is saying. I would remind him that the subamendment was moved—at least by the mover—with the express purpose of getting the Minister of Public Safety here to talk about the issue of a foreign interference office here in Canada. It wouldn't quite be relevant, then, to talk about the fishing issues on the east coast. That's not the purpose for which the minister was being called. Of course, the minister was being called for a purpose that is itself out of order, because the thing Mr. Genuis wanted to talk to him about isn't in the bill we're studying.
There is a bit of a regress going on, in terms of what sounds like a good reason being defeated by another reason that itself turns out not to be good. There is a fair bit of confusion. I hope I've helped resolve some of that confusion. I expect we're going to hear more about Fisheries and Oceans. I always appreciate an opportunity to learn. That's why I sub on other peoples' committees sometimes—to get to learn about other things. It's interesting to be on the finance committee and not get to hear about issues of finance, particularly when we have the budget implementation act before us.
I'm a sport and I'm here to learn, so please carry on. I just thought we should carry on with a proper understanding of what's going on. Now that we have that understanding established, let's continue.