Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. The Bloc Québécois will support that motion, but we do not want the committee to act as a tribunal, quite the contrary.
The information that appeared in the papers is significant enough, and this has tarnished the reputation of the person in question as well as that of the department. In my opinion, it is absolutely the right thing to do to offer this person the opportunity to explain what happened to us. Obviously, I have no intention of this becoming a court. It is not our role to judge, but rather to understand the situation, where perhaps funds were overspent. Is there a way of doing things within the department that, in our opinion, should be modified or changed? We shall see.
In order to support this motion, we do not need to judge this person or set up a tribunal. It is rather an issue of offering this person the opportunity to explain the ins and outs of this way of doing things. In that way, we offer this person the opportunity to provide us with more details than what appeared in the media. Furthermore, I believe that Ms. Ridgeway already provided some explanations to the journalist in question. It would not be unusual for her to present her perspective to the committee members. I would like to know if the department should change some things about the way it does business that could, in our opinion, result in excesses. We shall see, but my idea is certainly not that the committee become a tribunal.