Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I wholeheartedly believe that this intervention is a distraction from the real issue, a distraction from what we are trying to do, which is to advance the public interest. We have to take a step back and ask ourselves why we asked for this information. Why did we request this information? We did so because the Auditor General, on December 9, published a scathing report questioning the conduct and the work done by the Public Service Integrity Commissioner and her office. It questioned her conduct. It questioned the conduct of how she operated her office.
The office was set up to protect whistleblowers. We have to remember that the purpose of this office was to protect whistleblowers. It cost us $11 million of taxpayers' money. That's clearly understood. It took three years to set up, and 228 cases were brought to the attention of Madame Ouimet and her office, many of fraudulent nature.
She is an independent officer. She is not someone who is a senior bureaucrat. She is an independent officer of Parliament, and in the communication that we requested we clearly saw there was a lot of traffic between her and the PCO. That questions her independence as well. She is accountable to Parliament, and that is why we are asking for this information. That's why this information is important. It addresses the public interest.
All documents are public, as Mr. Saxton said in his remarks, unless the committee had some specific rules in place. Otherwise they are public, Chair. This is not debatable. If the committee determined in advance that there was an issue with these documents, so be it, but there was no such arrangement made.
With respect to the privacy concerns raised by Mr. Saxton, we brought forward Mr. Walsh and the Privacy Commissioner's office as well. Clearly, the Privacy Commissioner said the same thing, that the public interest trumps everything and good judgment needs to be demonstrated. I believe, Chair, you have done that on both fronts.
To the government members and the parliamentary secretary, what are you afraid of? Why don't you want these documents to be public?
In my opinion, it's important that we stop beating around the bush. I would actually request the chair to review what documents are of such concern to the government, and talk about what information the honourable member is so concerned about that was breached in the House of Commons. What privilege was breached? I wholeheartedly believe these documents are public unless the committee says otherwise. The committee never said so. Therefore, with respect to the issues around privacy, those too were addressed very clearly by the Privacy Commissioner, because we're trying to advance the public interest here. We're trying to deal with a very serious issue.
An office was set up to protect whistleblowers, and that same office that is supposed to be independent is in communication with the Privy Council Office. Some of the issues that were brought to her attention were of a fraudulent nature. How is that not important? Documents pertaining to that study need to be dealt with in the public domain.
I don't know what we have to hide here. Again, my question for the government members is what are they afraid of? What are they trying to hide? Why don't we make these documents public so we can advance the public interest?