I think we have to go back to the true nature of the position. Committees are normally independent from government action. The desire is that committees can control their own agenda and make their own choices. The question really has nothing to do with the parliamentary secretary as a person, but we have to ask ourselves, if, as a committee, we want to be completely autonomous, whether someone who is on the committee to represent the government should be there. In that sense, I think that the ideal situation would be, as my NDP colleague has suggested, to remove the parliamentary secretary. It is all about giving ourselves as many opportunities as we can to operate autonomously when making the choices that we will soon have to make about our future work and about how the steering committee should proceed. That never prevents the government from making its views known through any of its members, who are in the majority.
On February 2nd, 2009. See this statement in context.