Chair, I of course support Mr. Dewar's and Mr. Rae's comments and observations of motion. And I have to say that this motion was contemplated prior to the minister's comments today in the House. Frankly, we didn't anticipate the comments in the House. It was generated after the Speaker's ruling. The Speaker made his observations and his rulings based upon incomplete material. And it's within the powers of this committee to provide complete materials so that he can review it entirely.
Clearly, the minister's comments today seemed to be even more confusing than what she's been saying in the House or what she said before this committee. So just to review, when I asked, “...you were the one who wrote the 'not',” the minister said, “I did not say I was the one who wrote the 'not'”.
“Who did, then?”
Minister: “I do not know.”
Me: “You don't know?”
“I do not know.... I know that the decision ultimately reflects the decision I would support.”
It's a very curious statement, Chair, to say that she doesn't know who made the decision, she doesn't know how it got made, but it is a decision she would support regardless.
Then she gets into this distinction between the decision of the minister and the government. And apparently the president of CIDA didn't know what the policy of the government was, nor did the vice-president of CIDA know what the policy of the government was. The minister possibly also didn't know what the policy of the government was, because there's an argument to be made that she actually supported the decision in the first place. If you're not confused yet, Chair, I think the minister has some explaining to do. I hope that at some point or another the chair will invite her to try to explain herself before this committee.
Having said that, before us today is a point of privilege. I think that in any point of privilege the documentation should be before a Speaker, should always be before a Speaker, and that's what the Speaker said in his ruling, that technically he couldn't receive the material that was before the committee. So this motion does simply that. It's not commentary by any one of us. It's not commentary by the government members or the opposition members. It is simply putting the record that came before this committee before the Speaker, so that he can rule properly on a question of privilege.