Mr. Chairman, I had hoped we would start out this Parliament at least with some civil discussion instead of taking things so personally. I didn't think, to use the term that we're arguing about....
My understanding—unless I misread something in what Mr. Reid is proposing—is that he's not opposed to our adopting what has become quite a standard motion for committees to operate under. What he is suggesting, or at least what I heard, is that there should be some onus on us as the committee to ensure that witnesses who might travel all the way here from Whitehorse, Yukon, get here with a document in one of the languages and then be informed that they.... I think there should be some onus.
I see that what he was saying was actually supportive of this motion, that in addition to this motion we should have a policy, probably not only on this committee but on all committees, whereby the onus is on us through our clerks, through our staff, to ensure that witnesses appearing before us are well aware that is the policy. We're not saying it shouldn't be the policy. I don't think that's what he was saying. He was saying that the onus should be on us so that a witness doesn't appear here, as he was trying to point out, with a document similar to what's in front of us, with tabs, trying to walk through a presentation that they've put hopefully a lot of time and effort into presenting, and realize that they can't give a document like that to the members of the committee because, unknown to them, it has to be in both official languages.
I think it behooves us, Mr. Chairman, whether we need an addition to this or we just need it by common agreement and not have it in writing, to have some policy—and I think this is what my colleague Mr. Reid was referring to—whereby we are assured that, without exception, witnesses who appear before us are aware that this is the policy. That's what I heard him saying.
So I don't see where anybody should be insulted that we're having this discussion. I think we're all coming from the same place here on this issue.