Thank you, Mr. Chair.
One issue you mentioned, Mr. Dubrow, was that only eight jurisdictions, I believe it was, have access to cabinet documents. We proved in the sponsorship inquiry by the public accounts committee that when the government reports to Parliament and Parliament asks for cabinet documents, Parliament receives cabinet documents. It's a fundamental concept of our Westminster democracy that government reports to Parliament, and if we do not have access to cabinet documents, then who does have access to them? I think the answer would be nobody, and that therefore is undemocratic.
this leads me to my point, Mr. Chair. I would like to compliment CCAF and Mr. Dubrow on one thing he has done. In my work in the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, one of the things we talk about is education for parliamentarians so that they can understand what the role of oversight actually is.
If some jurisdictions in Canada have allowed the erosion of their powers and authority to the point where they do not have access to cabinet documents, that just demonstrates the need for education, along the lines of what Mr. Dubrow is doing, so that we do not give up the powers we have and should have and should absolutely retain. If we don't have access to cabinet documents, then it's all for naught, it's just a show and a façade, and we go through the motions without any real capacity to hold governments politically accountable—and I underline “politically accountable”.