Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I see the two motions as being very similar. They relate to the issue we discussed before. My concern is with any matters relating to agreements made in the civil service with private sector companies or individuals who are willing to share their knowledge, ideas, inventions, and methods with government in all the ministries. If we do anything in this committee or any other to undermine those relationships whereby Canadians generously share their knowledge and abilities with the federal government to help the government do better...they want the government to succeed, do better, and be better.
Let's say we make an agreement and say, “Please come in and tell us everything you know about this. We promise to keep it private; we won't give out your commercial secrets.” If this committee then does something to undermine those agreements and betrays a trust with those individuals, it could have huge ramifications for government in the big picture over the long period. And this is in every ministry. If Canadians--individuals and corporations--won't come in to share that knowledge and it's not available to us, that's a huge backward step.
So I share that concern with the committee. I'm on record as expressing this concern before. I want to go on the record as expressing it again today with regard to this motion.