Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We can't ask Dr. Franks to go to the Treasury Board or the PCO and negotiate and come back. We cannot do that.
We cannot do that, because he is an academic with first class credentials, and for him to come back and say, “I stand, and they agree with everything I say”...or if he capitulates and changes, then what happens to his credibility as an intellectual academic presenting a report to Parliament? Therefore, to put him in this totally impossible situation cannot be.
He has presented his best work to us. We accept that or we don't accept that. We listen to the Treasury Board, and it's up to us to make our decision. It is not for us to ask Dr. Franks to go and negotiate, and massage, and do whatever it is with the government.