Thank you very much, Mr. Walsh, for being here.
I chatted briefly with Ray—who I don't think will mind if I say this—outside the East Block yesterday, and I think there's honest intent on his behalf and that of Madame Bourgeois, Madame Nash, and everybody over there with regard to this issue. So keeping in mind what Mr. Walsh has suggested, and because the wording of the motion is quite vague and the committee is not convinced of the benefit, and so on, that relevant studies and information on the impact of the leasebacks—I think the information that Madame Bourgeois may be looking for may be very different from what Mr. Bonin is looking for and from what Mr. Simard is looking for.
As this is written, I think the committee will be asking the government to exceed what Mr. Walsh has described, which is the reasonable self-restraint of the public interest with regard to the confidentiality agreements the federal government has signed with regard to the sale and leasebacks and the marketing that is going on right now. But there is other information that may not have been brought forward by the minister or the deputy minister or the ADM responsible for real property when they came before the committee, which committee members may not be satisfied with. That's fine, and committee members have every right to ask for whatever information they wish.
So what I would suggest, then, as an alternative to this motion—and this doesn't require a motion—is that committee members put together a list of questions and a list of the very specific information that individual committee members haven't seen and would like to see. We would offer the Department of Public Works the chance to provide a briefing for any committee member who wants a full briefing on this issue in private, one on one, so committee members can have access to the ADM responsible for real property and ask individual questions.
But as this is written, I think Mr. Walsh has been very clear that the motion asks the federal government to violate confidentiality agreements we have signed with people with whom we are doing business with regard to the sale and leasebacks. But there's information beyond that, which many committee members want, and which they feel they haven't had access to, which we'd be more than prepared to deliver. If individual members who have those questions would be clear on what those questions are, I would be glad, as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Public Works, to present those to the minister for a written response as soon as possible.