Thank you.
I have probably a little more sympathy for Mr. Wrzesnewskyj's motion than Mr. Williams does, because I think the matter, number one, is rightly before us. Number two, just because there haven't been charges laid doesn't mean there aren't areas we should be going into to find out what's going on.
Certainly Mr. Williams would be the first to recollect the sponsorship scandal, and how it began and where it went. Ultimately it led to criminal charges, but it didn't start with that. The matter is rightly before us via the Auditor General.
Through you, Chair, my only concern to Borys is that we had a bit of a debate on this once before, where Mr. Wrzesnewskyj attempted to have certain police documents and investigative reports brought in. We determined that we really weren't there yet. If my memory serves me correctly, the majority of us supported a motion that would have had the RCMP commissioner and the police chief for the Ottawa Police Service come in.
If I didn't say it, certainly my intent was that if we aren't satisfied with what we hear there, I am quite prepared to entertain further action, maybe along the lines that you introduced earlier, but perhaps other things—and I find that this fits in that category.
You seem to know a lot about the story, and that's fine; you've done your homework. If you can pose questions that can't be adequately and thoroughly answered by the two police officers here at the table, then that would beg the question, how do we get those answers? At that point, your suggestion today and your previous one to me are back before us as options.
But I see this very much as either we get the answers we want, we're satisfied, and its over when they come in, or it's not satisfactory and there is a tacit understanding that, if so, we will dig further—and this may include going in that direction.
So for that reason, Chair, I don't find myself in a position to support this now. But I do give assurances to my colleague that if we don't get the answers from our invited witnesses, I am prepared to take further action to bring in those needed to get to the bottom of this.