—and she's already in the process of concluding, after debating and summarizing the issue, that Mr. Lee has never done anything wrong to anything or anybody at any time in his life or in his 22-year career.
Mr. Lee's intervention at the beginning, if we ever give him another chance to talk, was really quite helpful, because, first of all, he asked you for a ruling—which we're still awaiting, Madam Chair. He opened his remarks by saying that if it were determined that this committee doesn't actually have the jurisdiction to deal with the issue, the downside is that the Speaker might not accept the report when we table it in Parliament. His other two speculations, including the point that other witnesses before committee might then not be protected by privilege, we don't know to be the case. It's something that he put forward as a possibility.
I think we have every right to investigate this matter in the context of the administration of programs and departments of the Government of Canada and to determine if there was ever undue influence by lobbyists associated with the application and administration of those programs. We started in the context of the green infrastructure fund. That has opened doors and led us to an awareness of what could be a serious violation of the Lobbyists Registration Act. I was a founding member of this committee, the government operations committee, in this room, with Reg Alcock as the chair. At that time, the Lobbyists Registration Act was one of the things that was put under the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, in the absence of any other place for it to be plunked. So we were the catch-all committee in a lot of these areas.
Now we have a document right here from Mr. Lee's biography on the website of Sun & Partners that says that one of his jobs is lobbying government on policy issues as well as facilitating intergovernmental relations, advising government bodies on international issues regarding cross-border tax collection, anti-dumping issues, etc., reviewing policies and conduct of the Canadian Security Intelligence Services, and securing regulatory and government approvals for mergers and acquisitions. It just so happens by coincidence that Mr. Lee sits on the scrutiny of regulations committee.
We can't ignore this, and as a committee we'd be irresponsible to ignore this. I suggest that we take this as far as we can, and if it so happens that the report of the committee, as put together by all four political parties in the House of Commons, is tabled in the House of Commons and the Speaker can't accept it, we will still have done a public service by investigating this matter. As a courtesy to Mr. Lee, who I've known and respected for years, we should give him the opportunity to answer these allegations and answer the questions of the committee members without any further delay.
