I suppose the easiest way to deal with this, with the greatest respect to my colleague, is that the one and only and paramount reason he's giving for not hearing from Mr. Clark is factually incorrect. Mr. Clark was there the whole time. He's still there, as a matter of fact.
Mr. Clark has given notice of resignation. He was with the PMPRB throughout the entire process. He is there today, were you to phone over. His resignation is effective in June. I may have what he's doing today wrong, but he was, throughout the entire exchange of documents and letters, the executive director of the PMPRB.
Second, the reason he's an essential witness is that as the executive director of the PMPRB, there is no one who is better placed than he to answer questions that may come from this committee about what was happening at the PMPRB. He's appeared before this committee before. He's encyclopaedic in his knowledge. He's extraordinarily fair. He has no axe to grind, and he would be a resource.
This committee, when we schedule witnesses, just about always schedules four witnesses. It's my motion that I put forward, and these are the four witnesses I want.
This committee is always better served by hearing more evidence than not enough. If my colleague Mr. Thériault doesn't want to direct any questions toward Mr. Clark, he doesn't have to. He can focus his questions on whomever he chooses, of course, but Mr. Herder and Ms. Forcier will be there.
Mr. Clark is an indispensable source of knowledge about what's going on at the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, and I think he would be an indispensable witness for all members here to question.
The last thing I'll say is that you have some contrary opinions about what happened. To have someone who was the executive director of the board and responsible for the daily operations be there to answer questions and to have a person who is not intimately involved in the exchange of positions perhaps help us resolve this is, in my view, indispensable.
I would defeat this amendment and invite the four witnesses.