I understand that, Ms. Weatherill; however, our responsibility as the official opposition is to hold the government to account. The minister has some responsibility. I was very disappointed on Monday by some of the statements of the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and I outlined that then. We will have to call them back, I'm sure.
In my view, part of the reason we're having this parliamentary committee is to get to the bottom of whether or not it was possible that the minister or the Prime Minister, who knew an election was coming--nobody else knew that--was more concerned about the political spin and damage in the initial stages of this problem than the safety of food in this country, which is the responsibility of CFIA and the minister, in my view. So we have to find some way of getting to the bottom of that issue.
As far as your authority, how will you get information from the minister you are reporting to? The Minister of Agriculture stated publicly before the full committee on February 10 that you as the investigator have obtained “the full cooperation of all parties involved”. Is that statement accurate?