Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to say thank you to my colleague Madame Vignola for working with us to try to bring a path forward that tries to balance the two interests that we have at heart here.
I want to reiterate that everyone around the table wants to see us get to the bottom of this issue. We absolutely want answers. We believe there are parties to this investigation, in this case ArriveCAN, that have to answer some questions we have. The best way to do that is to come before the OGGO committee and to stand here and answer some of the questions. They are answerable.
We've been studying this issue now for five months, but in the last few weeks we've had testimony from the AG, from the procurement ombudsman and from the CBSA executive director that have raised additional questions. There's no doubt that they've raised additional questions. It makes sense that we want to bring additional witnesses here to answer some of the questions that we have.
On the one hand, we're all united in wanting to do that. We all supported the request to have Mr. Firth and Mr. Anthony from GC Strategies come here before the House. We supported that. We want to see that meeting take place. It is important. It is critical that these two gentlemen appear in front of the OGGO committee and face the questions that we have in order to shed additional light as we try to get answers and get to the bottom of things.
At the same time, it's important to emphasize that we did, as was reported...and I want to be careful about what I say here, because this is a delicate situation. I want to be very careful about individual persons' health issues and the sensitive information that has been shared.
I will speak about what was reported publicly, because I feel comfortable speaking about that. There was, of course, information already in a Globe and Mail article that talked about the health challenges of the folks who have been called to appear.
We take those concerns very seriously, and so we're in a situation with the competing interests—the pull and tug, I guess—of the two interests that we have. On the one hand, we want to see the witnesses come here, and on the other hand, we respect the concerns of someone who steps forward and shares their personal health concerns with us. We have to take that into consideration. We're trying to find the balance here.
I stated yesterday, when I spoke about this, that we're trying to weigh a balance here. I believe that the subamendment that was brought forward by Madame Vignola—the amended subamendment or the edited subamendment—does advance us towards a path, but I still don't think we're there yet, and I'll tell you why.
The nuclear button option, as Madame Vignola herself described it, which is asking the Sergeant-at-Arms to take into custody the witnesses, is a drastic move.
I say that because we have not seen a committee utilize that option in a very long time, as far as I know, at least in my recent memory. I know there was an article recently in the National Post about the last time that a Speaker utilized this prerogative of summoning the Sergeant-at-Arms. It says here, if I can read this—because I think this is important—“Former Speaker Peter Milliken used the power in 2007 to force police authorities to hand over arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber to the Sergeant-at-Arms. At the time, the House of Commons ethics committee was looking into the hundreds of thousands of dollars Schreiber had given to former [Conservative] prime minister Brian Mulroney.” This is from the National Post, if I'm not mistaken.
This is not a tool that we use frequently. It's not a tool that is used often. In fact, it's used rarely, in exceptional circumstances. I think we have to sort of be cautious in terms of reaching for that tool.
Do I think it's appropriate in this instance? At this point, I think that there are certain steps that we have not taken. I think that we're missing a few steps before we reach for that exceptional tool. Folks, in essence we're asking the Sergeant-at-Arms to take into custody—arrest—someone who has shared with us, as has been reported, the information that they cannot appear because of serious health issues, on which I'm not going to go into detail because we're trying to respect.... Again, please understand that we're to respect personal privacy here, especially on health issues.