Thank you, Madam Chair.
Quite honestly, colleagues, I have a little bit of a heavy heart on this. I recall the first meeting of this government ops committee, at which the chair stated, “This is, thankfully, one of the least partisan committees on the Hill, and we hope to see it act that way.”
For those members who obviously support this motion, if that is their strong personal opinion and their strong personal belief, I'm not comfortable with that, but I understand it and accept it. I think that's fair, that's democracy. But sadly, in my evaluation, I do believe that unfortunately too many people are playing politics with this issue, and it is such a serious issue. That is just from what we've heard here today and from the tone of comment. I don't believe it's consistent, and I'm not suggesting everybody is following that pattern; to those who are, I offer my apologies if I mischaracterize you on this statement, if you have that belief.
Just to touch on Mr. Kenney's remark, we have the credibility of people coming forward and we have a mandate. The mandate has not been followed by this motion in the committee. It's absolutely not relevant to the appointment process. It has absolutely no relevancy whatsoever. Competence, capability, ability to do the job, ability to deliver for the Canadian public, efficiencies--that's the mandate. When I see it being absolutely cast aside simply to mischaracterize an individual who has given 40 years of his life in the public service without a blemish, and to have this kind of mischaracterization...it is really a sad day.
I offer my personal apologies to Mr. Morgan for having to put up with this kind of mischaracterization. It's a sad day. I would recommend that our Prime Minister actually just do what is proper, do what is right, and appoint a gentleman who obviously is very deserving of this.