Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I move the motion of which I have given notice. I won't take 30 minutes, even though Mr. Jean sometimes accuses me of wanting to take a lot of time for speeches.
The circumstances are pretty clear. CBC reported on December 20 that on the Thanksgiving weekend there was a significant gap in security at Toronto's Pearson Airport. Essentially, what CBC reported was that about 250,000 passengers were rushed through with either minimal or no screening. An investigational report produced by Transport Canada says that the security screening process was circumvented; in some cases it was abandoned altogether. For example, on October 10, no bags were searched, and x-ray images were largely ignored. On October 11, strollers were allowed through the screening point without being searched.
So essentially, there's no doubt that on Thanksgiving weekend at Toronto's Pearson Airport, the security systems essentially broke down, and screening was not undertaken.
That report appeared on December 20. On December 21 Mr. Cannon said he was launching an inquiry into that security lapse, but it is important to note that prior to that story breaking, on November 6, CATSA basically announced, through Garda World Security, which is responsible for security at Toronto's Pearson Airport, that.... Garda World Security announced it had won an extension of its current screening operations at 28 airports, worth about $220 million. That extension was for two years, from April 1, 2007, until March 31, 2009.
I think it's very clear this is a responsibility of this committee. Here we had a serious security lapse. We've also had a contract renewal that took place after the security lapse. The minister was looking into the issue. I believe it would be important to have the minister come before this committee to answer questions about how this occurred and what the follow-up has been.