Thank you, Chair.
I don't know if Mr. Reid would take it as a friendly amendment to include the chief government whip, and whether you want me to formally move an amendment, or whether you want a separate motion. I'm in your hands on that. I'm in concurrence with the starting point of those two.
I did want to state to Mr. Chan and others that this business of staff is always a tricky one. Bear in mind that this committee always retains the right to demand any—and I think I've got the three right—papers, people, and documents, or at least close to that. That right is absolute.
As a matter of convention, starting with the minister, since they're accountable in keeping staff out of the direct line of fire if there's no need for them to be there, is a good one. I'm prepared to support that notion as we approach it, but I just hope that no one thinks that this necessarily ends it, or that we can't go to staff. Having been a staff—and I'm one of those, and there are quite a few around here—it's easy for us to put ourselves in those shoes and the last thing you want to do as a staffer is to be at the end of the table facing the opposition members and whatever might come. I get that. However, at the end of the day, if we have to do that to get at what we determine to be the truth, we still have that right. One is the niceties of how we'll approach it, and the other is, if we have to, the reserve of actual authority and power that this committee does have to produce whatever it wants to appear at the end of the table.