Mr. Chair, I will simply reiterate that I will be opposed to this subamendment for the reasons given. I also think there are aspersions being cast and veiled comments that I think are inappropriate for parliamentarians to be casting around about ministers of the Crown. I hope every member of Parliament is aware, and some—at least one—in this room will be more aware than others that when you disagree with a cabinet or government decision, you resign from cabinet.
We have a principle on cabinet solidarity in this country that Minister Freeland adheres to. The reality is it is simply inappropriate to go on a fishing expedition as such. I think everyone in this room knows that Minister Freeland is the Minister of Finance and also the Deputy Prime Minister. She has a keen interest in the Ukraine issue and the war and is a passionate supporter of Canada's engagement on this, and this sort of questioning or wonderings are just inappropriate.
I will continue to say that the position we would have is to bring to committee the ministers who have the responsibility for the decision that was made. It's been very clear that the permit was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and that the engagement with respect to the refurbishment of the turbine was part of the mandate of the Minister of Natural Resources. Clearly, those two ministers are the ministers responsible. That is about government accountability.
That is why I'd like to suggest that we bring this to a vote fairly soon so that we are able to make sure we have the appropriate meeting with the appropriate people at the appropriate time. This does not preclude adding witnesses. What we've done is add some key witnesses to the list who we think are important to get the basis of this done. Once we've added, we'll go back to the amendment after the subamendment is dealt with.
Once we have done those initial meetings with the ambassadors, the ministers and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, we can reassess the need for more witnesses. It would be absolutely appropriate, and we should do that. I think it would be very good.
The Minister of Finance has work to do, and all of us are concerned about the work that she is doing. It's important and big work for Canadians. We should let her do that work, which is what we will continue to do.
I'm speaking against it partly on the principle of making ministers who have made the decision accountable, and we will continue to do that.
I'm trying to remember if there are any other points I was trying to make. At a certain age, you need to write notes, and I wasn't writing notes.
Again, I would stress that when we get to the fourth part of the amendment I made, we can add a list of other witnesses to be determined by the committee, very similar to what Mr. Bergeron suggested with respect to additional meetings. We're not closing any doors; we're keeping doors open and trying to make them appropriate.