My concern isn't even that the minister is having control. I think we've seen in the past, and anyone who was on the immigration committee under the last government knows, that the parliamentary secretary comes to the meetings. She represents more or less the department's position. We are the elected members of this Parliament. We do not need to have interference in our agenda by department officials. They already have enough interference in what we do. I think we've seen this in the past with parliamentary secretaries. I don't like the idea that they're going to control our agenda as well.
On November 20th, 2007. See this statement in context.