I'd like to talk about the first point, in terms of the facts and the numbers as they've come in so far. In terms of information on exceptions, actually, sir, I worked for Mr. Cappe at the Privy Council Office. I spent more than 25 years in mostly central agencies. I've been in cabinet rooms with both this government, including this Prime Minister, and previous prime ministers in different governments.
It's clear to us that with that kind of background we should not get real cabinet confidence information, and we should not be given personal information on Canadians, their financial states, what have you. I think we have a pretty good sense of where the line is.
We've been told on multiple occasions that corporate profits projections were cabinet confidences, even though we know that in fact they were shared in the past. Having worked many, many years in finance at Treasury Board and the Privy Council Office doing the same costing work I'm providing to you, sir, I don't understand.... I've been in cabinet rooms. Those conversations and those methodologies and those assumptions, like corporate profits, are not associated with a cabinet discussion. This is information that's the normal course of business. We have lots of people working on methodologies. It cuts across multiple departments in many cases. It's not really a small circle of people who work on it.
For me, the extension of this information as to a cabinet confidence we've challenged on multiple occasions. I think there is a debate that needs to take place as to what is truly cabinet confidence.