Thank you. I'll be brief.
I have a concern about Mr. Norlock's comments about democracy being the exercise of power. It is in fact the exercise of power by the people through their institutions, and one of those institutions is Parliament.
The fact of the matter is that the parliamentary secretary is a representative of government, and the executive answers for the government in the House of Commons when the minister is not there.
There has been a trend and a concern, by all parties, over the years of ensuring that the committees are independent and that they be independent of the executive. I didn't get a chance to do enough research, but I'm very sure, given the kinds of comments that Chuck Strahl has made in the House, that if I looked hard enough, I'd probably find a comment from him on parliamentary secretaries on committees, because that was a strong view of the party at the time in opposition.
The fact is, what we're going to see very shortly is an exercise of power, in the sense that the majority on this committee will wish to put the representative of government on the subcommittee on agenda and procedure, and frankly they have the power to do that. The fact of the matter is, this committee would operate with or without that.
I will, however, take Mr. Alexander at his word. I think he said on the record here this morning that he will take action to ensure that this committee is independent. So we will be calling you on that, sir, whenever the occasion arises. But it's not something that we relish, because it is in fact a backward step for this committee to be closer to the executive and to have that influence on the subcommittee on agenda and procedure.