Do you realize that if you used that you could block everything? You could assume everything is before cabinet. Every single discussion from every MP, every vendor, eventually has to go through the Treasury Board process and a Treasury Board submission and, therefore, is cabinet confidence. Every RFI, every RFP, every quote would therefore, by this interpretation, be cabinet confidence. This conversation could be considered that because you could then go to Minister Murray and discuss this meeting and, therefore, refuse to ever say anything again.
I find it a very shocking precedent that either your legal counsel or your department is trying to present this to us as cabinet confidence. It's not even anywhere close to the beginning of a Treasury Board submission. As a parliamentarian I'm dumbfounded at what Shared Services is presenting to us, withholding from us, or again I'll use the word “pretending” in its justification to withhold this information from Parliament.
I think I'm pretty much out of time, but I would really hope that you go back to your legal folks and have a good talk and come back to this committee with the full report to us—unredacted.