Mr. Chair, in our parliamentary system of government, openness and transparency start with a discussion with duly elected representatives of the public. The minister contends herself, as she just said, that she is talking to us now, but she is talking to us after they've already announced the result. There's no consultation with Parliament. Let's be clear on that. This was decided in vacuo by members of cabinet, and a letter was simply sent to two chosen newspapers.
With regard to not believing everything that you read in the newspaper, that was in The Globe and Mail, and The Globe and Mail was indeed one of the only two newspapers to have received the Prime Minister's letter. One would have thought that was an indication that the minister thought it was a worthwhile place to put that letter.
I don't know how you explain the difference between Sean Fine's article and what the minister just said to us today, but I will say, Mr. Chair, that right now we're looking at substantive changes. If you go back to the Supreme Court's decision in the Nadon case, you will see that this type of substantive change is not something the executive branch of government can foist on parliamentarians, who represent the legislative branch of government. That's a serious problem, but it's also a consistent tendency of this new government, whether it was with motion No. 6 in trying to take away all powers of the opposition or whether it was on the Latvian deployment without any discussion in Parliament, despite the fact that the Liberals used to bemoan the Conservatives trying to do that—albeit they finally consulted Parliament—or direct talks between the PMO and the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Indeed, it's not the Prime Minister's budget officer; it's Parliament's budget officer. Parliament has always had a word to say.
I'm concerned about the way we're trying to proceed because we're being put before a fait accompli. This has already been decided in a vacuum by a small group of people, and the conclusions, as far as I'm concerned and from what I've heard, are preordained.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.