Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think it is relevant. I'm talking about how I, as a public servant, was held to the very high standard of value for money and demonstrating where the money I spent as a public official was actually spent.
I think that's all that we're asking for in this study and
as soon as possible.
I want to go back to another point that Mr. Barrett made, and that was about how difficult it is to land officials. They have very demanding schedules. I think it's very important that we consider how hard it is for them to accommodate our schedules.
In addition, it was just brought to my attention by my colleague here about when this committee, before my time, did a study on the Governor General. At that time, apparently they had officials here before the documents, so apparently there is a precedent for where this has occurred before. This would not, in fact, be the first time. Yes, there is a first time for everything, but this would not be the first time—definitely not.
That's actually a very good point about the Governor General, if we think about the things that were uncovered even on the Governor General's spending. I certainly have a lot of respect for the office of the Governor General. As a former diplomat, I take great care in terms of hospitality, and the necessity to demonstrate good hospitality as Canadians, both home and abroad. Of course, that study indicated that as much as we want to display goodwill and hospitality to others, certainly even that has its limits. I definitely think that we learned in that case.
Of course, we do not want to be penny-wise and pound foolish. Again, I think when we look at some of the expenses, a lot came to light even with that study.
My point, getting back to this, is that was another study where we were able to bring to light for Canadians just—