Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't want to take up a fair bit of this committee's time, but I plan on doing it right now. I plan on doing so, although I didn't think this would have to be stated.
Naturally, knowing where we're going with this, I thought we should take a look at some longstanding traditions, some directives, and some methods by which this House operates, methods our chair alone, as a senior minister of the crown, has operated on for years, and the relationship between the public service and the PCO and the responsibilities they all have.
Madam Chair, you have abided by the responsibilities, the history, and the tradition that I'm basically going to be reading here. This is a directive that has been followed through on for ages in the relationship between the public service and the PCO, and their responsibility.
I suggest this would be good reading for every member of this committee to take a look at. It's the notes on the responsibilities of public servants in relation to parliamentary committees. It's good reading for all of us.
Mr. Alghabra, I mention this. You and I are relatively new members in comparison to a number of the senior members in the House. It opened my eyes a little bit. Quite honestly, we're learning something every day.
When I read through this, I realized that, my goodness, I really wasn't aware of it, and so I'm bringing this to our attention.
I'm going to read a little bit. I won't read the whole thing, and I'm certainly not going to paraphrase or cherry-pick, but these are some comments that I think we should all be mindful of. It starts off:
The following notes have been prepared for the guidance of officials appearing before Parliamentary committees. They set out the constitutional principles that underlie relationships among Ministers, officials and Parliament. In our system of government, the powers of the Crown are exercised by Ministers—