Mr. Speaker, with regard to that motion, I am pretty sure that if the member for Oakville took the opportunity to speak with the opposition, it would give its consent if the motion were made a second time.
I want to make some brief comments with regard to this matter. As I indicated during my questions, I doubt anyone in this place disagrees that the officers of Parliament, being the Auditor General, the Official Languages Commissioner, the Chief Electoral Officer, the Privacy Commissioner and the Access to Information Commissioner, all should have the appropriate funding to discharge their statutory obligations.
I note in the foreword of the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics a statement by the chair that all members knew that this was a step forward in restoring public confidence in Parliament and its officers. I would take some exception with regard to the reference to officers in this statement.
If members want to denigrate this place, they can do that, but with regard to officers, I hope the member and all members would agree that there is no evidence that officers of Parliament and their incumbents today have never, to my knowledge at least, been brought into question with regard to their competence and abilities. I wanted to make that point.
I also wanted to point out that the member indicated that the problem raised by the committee was with regard to the discharge of statutory obligations. I am not sure, maybe it was off the cuff but there was a reference that there could be a problem with independence because funding for an officer's statutory obligations would be withheld if he or she were getting close on an investigation.
That is awfully close to imputing motive or some wrongdoing on behalf of those responsible, including parliamentarians at committee and reviewing the estimates at Treasury Board. To suggest that somebody would withhold funding of an officer of Parliament because that officer was maybe getting close to something or doing an investigation is absurd and should never be said in this place.
We have some work to do here. Again I think all members would agree that this is a subject matter that should be dealt with. I am going to encourage the government to look at this report very carefully.
I know that the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates already has been seized with the issue because the committee of which I am currently the vice-chair is also very interested to ensure that the estimates process throughout the broad range of departments, agencies and offices are indeed discharged by parliamentarians and reviewed carefully on a regular basis.
Having said that, I think the member can be encouraged to see some support and I hope we are going to move forward.
I think it is time to move on with business. Therefore, I move:
That the debate do now adjourn.