Thank you, Chair.
Conservatives are here pushing for transparency with regard to the expenditure of taxpayers' dollars. We certainly do not support the idea that an important safeguard like reporting this matter to the House should be stripped from the motion. This is the mechanism for ensuring that the government follows through.
We've had many instances where committees have ordered the production of documents, and the government has flagrantly ignored the right of committees to order that. Committees have an important job to do, but we've seen consistently that this government does not respect the work that committees have to do through ordering documents.
We want transparency. We believe that taxpayers have a right to see all of the details of this contract. The motion we have drafted provides the safeguards to ensure that this will actually happen. The amendment proposed by the NDP would, I think, substantively allow the government to do what they have done in many other cases, and that is to simply ignore the order to produce documents to the committee.
The question before this committee is this: Are we committed to ordering these documents, and are we serious about ensuring that we actually get them? If we're serious about ensuring we actually get them, as Conservatives are, then it is important we have this mechanism of reporting it to the House as well.