My final comment to you, Mr. MacLennan, is that we received this brief last week from you and it's clearly marked “confidential”, for presentation to the committee here today. It is ruled that a document presented to a committee becomes the property of the committee and forms part of the committee's records until such time that it's made public here at committee, and it should never have been released to the media. Of course, this was in the media all weekend and all day yesterday.
So I am extremely disappointed that we're dealing with this through a media eye rather than under the scrutiny of the committee, first and foremost. It takes away our opportunity as committee members to do the proper job of scrutinizing and holding government to account for wasteful spending and things of this nature, or making a proper reference that this should be going over to the public accounts committee for their study, or sending it on to the proper authorities, such as the Auditor General.
Regardless, it is what it is.
We're going to suspend and allow our witnesses to change. We will bring in the representatives of the Office of the Auditor General.