I'm sure what my colleague is referring to is the fact that we would normally be televised today, so we're glad to see that some media are here.
As I was saying, I'm quite outraged that we have no witnesses before us today. I'm quite concerned about that. I feel that my responsibilities and duties as a parliamentarian.... I've been sent here by the good people of my riding of St. John's South—Mount Pearl. I have a fiduciary responsibility and I take that quite seriously. I feel that I'm being denied, actually, my rights and responsibilities to question people on this concern.
We are in the midst of a fairly serious study on a very serious matter of public trust, and I'm quite frustrated by the unwillingness of the ministers to appear. I'd like to talk a little bit about that. You know, I don't know what they're quite afraid of.
I want to ensure, Madam Chair--I want to make it very clear--that witnesses appear on this very serious matter. I want to ensure that they appear before we break for our summer recess, and I want to review with you the full review of who I would like to have before the committee.
Before I do that, let me explain why I'm quite frustrated today. We asked Minister Raitt to appear today. She sent you a letter saying that she's responding to the request in her capacity as the former Minister of Natural Resources, and that her office has searched for relevant records and no records were found.
Well, that, I guess, is of concern, because the Liberal Party did file an access to information request on April 16, and that request has come back to us saying that they need to go further to get the requested documents. They're indicating that more consultations with other government departments and third parties will be required, and verbally have said, yes, there is information here.
Again, I'm frustrated that this is coming out in dribs and drabs. I'm not quite sure why it is doing that and why this information is coming to us in this manner. If the Conservatives are quite serious about being open and transparent, then I suggest they do start becoming open and transparent.
Allow me to talk for a moment. We're dealing with future business here today. I want to talk about my suggestions on the list of witnesses. And I'd like to make sure that this committee is available any time Minister Raitt or Minister Paradis would like to appear. If that requires us to have special meetings, if it requires us to sit during constituency week, then I think we should make ourselves available.
I had suggested at our last committee meeting May 10, and I would like to again suggest, that we have the Parliamentary Budget Officer on Corrections. We did have a discussion about that, and I would again like to reiterate that I think this is a timely and important topic. It advances further the business of this committee, and I think we have to move forward on that.
I reiterate that I would like to have on May 12, then, Derrick Snowdy. I know he was requested to come today. He was not available. I'd like to hear about why he's not available today and if he would be available for another time, along with Ian Harvey; he's with HD Retail Solutions Inc. I'd like to have them here together, if I could.
On May 26, I'd like to have Jim Wright here for the first hour--we talked about that in our last committee meeting--and then the other companies for the second hour. When I say “other companies”, for clarity that's Upper Canada Solar Generation Limited, Canadian Solar Incorporated, and Renewable Energy Group Incorporated.
Then, on May 31, because we do have a duty toward main estimates, I'd like to have PCO on the main estimates. On June 2, I would like to have a panel of what I'll call staffers, or people involved in the various ministers' offices: Andrew House, he's in Minister Goodyear's office; Scott Wenger in Minister Prentice's office; Sébastien Togneri--