Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think, precisely as members are arguing, that we want to make sure that the confidence of the public is reassured, that decisions are made in a non-partisan way and that the public health officials' information and advice to the ministers is consistent. Precisely for those reasons, if nothing else, for us to receive this information from the Minister of Health and, I would argue, the PMO, although that amendment didn't pass.... I would argue that, at the very minimum, we should be getting this information from the Minister of Health's office. If nothing else, all that it would do is reassure the public that, in fact, the decisions made and the information that has been shared with the Minister of Health are made available to the public for all to see.
I think that, in the spirit of transparency and accountability, this amendment should not be passed. I think it is absolutely critical for the committee to access this information, and I think it is critical for the public to access this information, so I would really urge the committee members who have been thinking of excluding this information from being obtained from the Minister of Health's office to reconsider that.
The other point I want to make is this. It's been repeated over and over again by government MPs that somehow this would be duplication of information, as though somehow they already know. Well, I don't know at this point in time; we don't know at this point in time, so let's be sure that we go through the process here. We're going to do this work anyway. The officials are doing this work anyway. Let's just be sure and clear the air, so that the information is shared with the committee members and with the public for transparency and accountability.