Mr. Chair, it occurs quite often that, given that motor vehicles are consumer products and there are collisions, there are civil cases, there are litigants involved, individual A versus individual B taking each other to court. It occurs fairly often that they rely on employees of government to serve as free witnesses, free technical resources.
These are most often cases where there's really nothing to be gained for the public good. These are just two litigants who are taking each other to court. There isn't a technical aspect. There's nothing that could benefit the general public. Given that it's in their private interest, we feel it's appropriate that they depend on the private sector, on consultants and the engineering firms that could supply them with such advice, as opposed to using free advice from public servants. Now, there are situations where there is a public interest to be served, in which case the minister would want the public servant to testify, and we would do so.