Mr. Chair, I certainly accept your comments regarding my amendment. It is mindful of the taxpayers. We're all being asked across the country, from coast to coast, to tighten our belts. As parliamentarians, we have a fiduciary responsibility to the people, who have given us their confidence in being here, to exercise every possible opportunity to minimize costs. If they're outside the greater Ottawa area, we should exercise every effort to try to have witnesses appear before us via teleconference. If they can't, of course, we don't want to jeopardize the integrity of the study and the work of the committee.
On March 8th, 2012. See this statement in context.