Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Page, gentlemen, good afternoon.
Mr. Page, this is the second time we have had the opportunity to meet. I remember that shortly after you took up your duties in March 2008, you came to see us, in May 2008. We could feel your emotion because you had just been granted enormous powers under the Federal Accountability Act, but also under the Parliament of Canada Act, given that you were to report to the Parliament of Canada.
We would therefore tend to believe that you would provide us with all the analyses, all of the information, all explanations concerning budgets, and more particularly, the Government of Canada's economic stimulus plan. I kept the documents you provided us with when you appeared before the committee. You have an extremely impressive background. You are a tax expert. And despite the fact that we have such an expert before us, the report does not answer our questions. I find it quite problematic. Nor can we discover what the real impacts of the economic stimulus plan are. Unless I am mistaken, there are only estimates in your report.
One thing made me angry. You attached a request for information sent to Infrastructure Canada to your document. It is a very good letter, respectfully addressing the person you sent it to. You wanted access to all of the databases in order to be able to closely follow the development of infrastructure projects under the stimulus fund, which would be key to explaining this famous plan to us. You added very specific elements.
Unfortunately, the answer you received said that it was impossible to provide you with this information with such short notice. You had given them two weeks, which, in my opinion, seems quite appropriate. Furthermore, I did some research on my own about this. When a department has good planning and is well organized, they can easily respond to the questions of the parliamentary budget officer within 15 days and provide these statistics. So your request was perfectly justified.
Then you were told that you would have access to this information in due course. It was a deputy minister who responded to you—personally, I was blown away by that—while copying a Mr. Timothy Sargent, the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office.
Since you have worked at the Privy Council Office as a tax expert, could you tell us if we can assume that the Prime Minister's entourage knows that you do not have all of the documents required in order to answer parliamentarians' questions?