I appreciate your comments at the opening of the meeting. It's interesting to hear that we've had a change of heart by Justin Trudeau's $9-million man Tom Clark. He is now saying that he is willing to meet, after having previously said that he would appear and then that he wouldn't appear, and then that he was on leave. Then, when his office was contacted by media, they were told that he was in fact in the office. We have very disingenuous, at best, responses from Mr. Clark. They raise all kinds of questions about who the direction came from for Mr. Clark not to appear as he had originally committed to this week.
This is, of course, in the context of a $9-million residence on Billionaires' Row that will serve one person and duplicate existing space that the office of Canada's representative in New York already has. We heard from Trudeau government officials last week that they were incredibly proud of the $9-million Billionaires' Row accommodations they got for Justin Trudeau's pal. It never occurred to them that it would be optically bad to spend $9 million on a place on Billionaires' Row for a member of the Liberal elite. I think their response, their being unaware of how out of touch this was, says everything you need to know after nine years of Justin Trudeau and his NDP-Liberal government.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Clark had agreed to be here today and he backed out. Now he's saying he will come on one of those dates. Let's pre-empt the conversation we'll have on the date that's selected. If Mr. Clark doesn't come on that date, he'll have exhausted every reasonable courtesy that this committee can extend to him. As the motion did pass unanimously for him to be here, he must be summoned, because otherwise he will be in defiance of this committee's unanimous wish and, of course, will demonstrate that again he did not tell the truth, just as he did yesterday when he said he was on leave but in fact was not. We'll wait and see, but it's clear that this is an effort by the government to try to delay and distract from this latest, $9-million scandal.
To our witnesses, please answer this question as briefly as possible: Is Midtown East appropriate for representational space for a G20 country, in your estimation?