Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome to our two ministers.
My first question is as follows. When the committee made a request to the different departments affected by the motion adopted on November 17, 2010, the government responded this way on December 1:
The issue of whether there are any costs associated with the implementation of any of the government's justice bills is a matter of confidence and, as such, the government is not in a position to provide such information or documents.
So, on December 1, there was no question of providing information regarding the justice bills identified in the motion passed by the Standing Committee on Finance. On February 17, the Government House Leader tabled a document in the House providing a certain amount of information, although that information was obviously incomplete. There was a great deal of detail missing.
What happened between December 1 and February 17 that resulted in information that was considered confidential by your government, because it was a Cabinet confidence, suddenly being released on February 17? It suddenly became possible to release some of those documents. However, they are woefully inadequate.
The proof of that—and you yourself admit this—is that today, you have come here with a document that basically presents the same information that was tabled in the House on February 17, but with additional details.
How do you explain the government's response last December 1?