I think the committee can do what it wants to do. We've got our own mandate and are the masters of our own agenda.
One of the important things--and committee members recognize it--is that when some of the positions were put in place there wasn't the kind of oversight there should have been. The process has gone through a great improvement since the last Conservative government, when the Prime Minister's wife's hairdresser got appointed as a citizenship court judge, and all sorts of liberties were taken in appointing people to the refugee board. The committee worked diligently to make sure that wasn't the case. So this is an extension of those discussions.
I remember when I was on that committee in previous years and we had discussion around this, I quite openly said that if we had a Conservative, NDP, or Bloc member--even if we had a Liberal government--as long as they were competent they would probably make a very good appointment, especially if they knew the issues.
I think I'm very much in support of this motion. If the government has a problem with that it's the government's problem, but certainly not the committee's problem. That's an important point to make. We're the masters of our own fate on this committee.