Thank you, Chair. Thank you for your ruling.
I have to tell you, the wording that was suggested to me by others I talked to was far stronger than this in terms of taking a position on the issues at hand, which Mr. Saxton did touch on in his remarks.
My sole purpose in doing this is that nobody else is. We have a budget officer who's running around believing that he's under one mandate and under one supervisory set of rules, and others who are in positions of responsibility are saying differently. And nobody's resolving it. All I'm trying to do is offer up one venue.
Quite frankly, this is probably not the best place to resolve the issue, but as one parliamentarian, in a non-partisan way, I'm saying this can't continue. This is crazy. Somebody has to take responsibility for getting to the bottom of it, setting it straight, so we can then go about enjoying the fruits of the work that's to be done.
In the absence of somebody else's grabbing it...and to that degree, Chair, I'm quite prepared to accept a motion and would support a motion of tabling if I get an indication from, particularly, government members or opposition colleagues who know it's going somewhere else. I'll just keep that idling on the side street--well, it won't be idling, it'll be waiting on the side street--in case it's needed, in which case I will withdraw and get rid of it.
I am not about arguing what's right or wrong or what those parameters are to be. I say to my government colleagues that what I am about, as a parliamentarian, is that this can't go on. This is an untenable situation, and I don't see anybody resolving it.
Maybe I was hoping, if nothing else, this might light the fuse, give it a kick--pick your metaphor. I didn't feel right that we could continue doing nothing when the media and others come up and say, “What are you all going to do about it?” and there's no answer.
So there's my bit.
