Mr. Chair, I'm concerned. I think this calls into question my privileges as a member of Parliament and as a member of this committee when the liaison committee decides, whether it's an austerity measure or whatever the case might be, to limit the capacity of the committee to travel as a whole to have our discussions.
I'm greatly concerned about that. I'm greatly concerned about the fact that while we reduced the number of members of Parliament who might be able to travel, we don't seem to have any mechanisms to reduce the number of accompanying staff. I know we do need certain staff to accompany us, but I sometimes wonder if we don't go overboard on that, and I've never, in the time that I've been here, heard any discussions as to why it takes eight staff to go with eight members when it takes eight staff to go with 12 members. It doesn't seem to add up to me. Could I get some clarification on that?
The other thing I would mention is that if this decision needs to be made right now, then we should probably work towards making a decision, because there are other things we need to do, and we're past our 5:30 time. If we could defer a decision and a discussion on this to the next meeting, that would please me greatly.