Thank you, Chair. I will be very brief.
I make this intervention as the longest-serving, continuous member on this committee. I'm referencing the presence, again, of the parliamentary secretary to the treasurer.
I accept that it is her right as a member of Parliament and as an associate member of the committee to sit here. I recognize this seems like a small matter, but it has big implications, as the government ran on a platform of removing the influence of parliamentary secretaries from committees. For the most part, that has happened, and it has been a good thing. I complimented that when we finally got around on PROC to where that was the case, where we got rid of the parliamentary secretary, and I gave the government credit for that. It was a good move.
We are called upon here to get above our partisanship, because we're the premier oversight committee in Parliament. It hearkens back to the old days that the government said they were going to be different when it comes to the parliamentary secretary being here. It cannot do anything but leave the impression that the government is riding shotgun on public accounts. If ever there should be a committee where all of us are not being directed or influenced by the parliamentary secretary, it's here.
I have two more points, Chair.
Number one, I'm not alone, and this is not new. A colleague, the member for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, was quoted in the paper recently as saying, “The Liberals promised to remove the influence of ministers and parliamentary secretaries on the committee, and this appears to be a promise broken.”
That was in another committee, and I would make the same argument here, that the government is not honouring the pledge they made to remove the influence of parliamentary secretaries, particularly at the oversight committee, particularly given that our major oversight is Treasury Board.
I'm going to leave it there for now. I won't even mention the picture that the parliamentary secretary refused to get out of when we were trying to take a picture of the committee. We still couldn't have it because you and I wouldn't be in it unless the parliamentary secretary got out of it, and she wouldn't.
I'm asking the government—I've done it nicely, and I've done it now my first time publicly—please, honour your promise. Ask the parliamentary secretary to please not come to these meetings. It's serves all of us best.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.